


The Mists of the Silver Towers

by RhysLahey



Series: Beyond the Elritch Beacon [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Camping, Choose Your Own Adventure, Decision Making, Decisions, Friendship, M/M, outdoors, strange shit happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:07:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 46
Words: 30,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhysLahey/pseuds/RhysLahey
Summary: Isaac and Liam go on a field trip camping to the far corners of the Rockies for Isaac's dissertation. Liam comes across a book of myths and legends, and many of them seem to be more real than expected.
Relationships: Isaac Lahey & Liam Dunbar, Isaac Lahey/Scott McCall
Series: Beyond the Elritch Beacon [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581652
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of my “Beyond the Eldritch Beacon” series, and if fits in between the two main works. 
> 
> This story gives some background to Isaac and Liam’s friendship, but you can skip this fic altogether if you just want to focus on the main narrative. This also means that you can read it on its own without having to read “Beacons and Groves” – just assume that Scisaac happened eventually after the end of the show when Isaac came back to California  
> If you’re up for more adventure, then read the following Instructions:
> 
> This is a choose-your-own-adventure story, which means it is more of a game than it is a story. Because of this, you are not supposed to read the chapters in order, because the story will not make sense. At the end of each chapter, you will be given two or more options (or, sometimes, only one…), each with a link leading to the next chapter in your storyline. You make the decisions, you write the story! And remember: going back to change your mind counts as cheating!
> 
> In this one, you will be deciding what Liam and Isaac do during their week out camping in Montana. I’ve never been there, but have seen enough documentaries on the telly to see that it’s proper wilderness in the mountains out there. Your decisions in this story, oh dear reader, will affect what happens next and what do our boys encounter. There are many storylines, so you can read the story in different ways and combinations, and get (very) different results.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> PS: I have only written one of four storylines. Updates in the forseeable future!  
> PPS: Many *many* thanks to i_dont_want_to_tell_you_my_name for being an amazing beta-reader!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read the instructions before reading/playing!

Isaac was preparing his final dissertation, an extended piece of research that counted for half of his final marks for his degree in Earth Sciences. He had chosen to do a geological study of an area of the Montana Rockies, as suggested by his tutor, and he thought it would be a great idea to go out there and see those pesky rocks himself rather than through his textbooks. It was as good an excuse as any to go out camping in the wilderness and to enjoy a weeklong holiday, and definitely an upgrade from running around and wolfing out in the Beacon Hills preserve.

He got everything prepared to go early in the spring, when it would still be cold, but if he went any later, he would not have enough time to write the essay. The main problem he found was that the week he planned to go, Scott could not go with him because he had to stay in Davis to do his lab work. That annoyed Isaac, but before he went on his own Liam surprised him by volunteering to accompany him.

“Are you sure, Liam?” Isaac asked, never having expected that the other beta would offer to go camping with him. “I mean, it’s going to be four days of me looking mostly at rocks and maps.”

“Yeah sure, no worries!” Liam happily replied. “I don’t mind. I like going camping. Plus I know Scott wouldn’t be happy if you went on your own. God forbid, something happened to you… He’d go berserk.”

“I’m sure it’s like a twenty-hour drive from Denver to the glacier park.”

“I’m sure that Davis is not much closer.”

Liam had a point. The distances between their three points of interest (Davis where Isaac lived with Scott, Denver where Liam was studying, and the glacier park in Montana) were massive. Eventually they decided that, as Isaac had all the camping kit, Liam would fly to Sacramento and they would drive together from there.

The day before they were scheduled to leave, Liam packed his stuff and a sleeping bag, got to the airport, and jumped on the plane. Scott and Isaac picked their pack mate from the airport and took him home for dinner – they had a very early morning the day after, so they decided against going out into town.

At the crack of dawn, Liam and Isaac had a quick breakfast and got ready. While they were loading the car, a very sleepy Scott came to say goodbye.

“What are you doing up? It’s still five in the morning.”

“I came to say goodbye,” Scott said with a sad drowsy voice.

“Are you sure you’re going to be ok?” Isaac asked his boyfriend. “I’ve left you food for a few days in the freezer. Don’t you dare eat take-away all week, you hear me?”

“I won’t, _mom_.”

“Shut up and kiss me,” Isaac teased as he pulled Scott and his pyjamas into a cuddle.

“I’ll miss you,” Scott whispered into Isaac’s ear, nuzzling his nose into his boyfriend’s hair.

“I’ll miss you too, silly.”

They broke their embrace and Scott approached Liam, giving him a big werewolf hug.

“You take care of him,” Scott said, flashing his eyes red, even if he was smiling.

“Jeez, I know,” Liam replied. “Don’t worry. No bear will dare touch him while I’m around.”

“Good.”

“Come on, shortarse,” Isaac called from the door. “Chop-chop.”

“Babe, please be nice to Liam?” Scott begged as Liam rolled his eyes and grabbed his rucksack.

“I always am,” Isaac gave his boyfriend a quick wink before shutting the door behind him.

***

“So, are you excited?” Isaac asked as he pulled out into the motorway.

“You’ll be surprised, but I am,” Liam acknowledged. “My step-dad used to take me camping when I was younger, and you’ll be surprised how little outdoors stuff we do as a pack.”

“I know! Don’t get me started. But it was even worse when Derek was alpha. We used to live in a train depot, you know?”

“Yeah, I think Scott mentioned it. The only outside stuff we do now is when we have a supernatural emergency.”

“Lydia is not a big fan of camping, I can imagine,” Isaac mentioned as he drove. “Or Stiles, for that matter. Hell, I know for certain that Stiles is not of the outdoor persuasion. Have you ever heard about his fishing trips with his dad?”

“No!?” Liam replied as his jaw dropped. “Is it as embarrassing as I am imagining?”

“I don’t know the full story,” Isaac added with cheer, clearly enjoying the gossip. “But he is not very keen in telling the details. Obviously, his dad certainly likes remembering it aloud whenever he has a chance.”

Both werewolves laughed in the car, relishing the possibilities that this juicy story offered next time they saw Stiles, which would probably be the following summer.

Liam spent most of the morning sleeping in the car. By 8:30 they were in Beacon Hills, where they stopped to have a proper breakfast with Melissa and Dr Geyer, both of whom wished them a good trip as they drove away. From then on, they needed the satnav to lead them.

They drove for miles and stopped for petrol and for snacks. But they still had a very long drive ahead.

“So, Isaac,” Liam asked casually…

_Ask Isaac about him and Scott[[A1]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531449)  
_

_Ask Isaac about the pack before his time[[A2]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531467)  
_

_Ask Isaac about his time in France[[A3]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531479)  
_

_Talk about Liam’s life in college[[A4]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531506)  
_

_Just listen to the radio[[B]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531512) (jump to next section)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there are any broken links, please do let me know and I'll try to fix them!


	2. A1

“… how’s Scott?”

“Oh, he’s ok,” Isaac answered with the goofy smile he got whenever he talked about his boyfriend. “He’s like super busy with labs in college, doing all his animal clinic stuff. That’s why he isn’t here.”

“Yeah, no, I mean: how are you two? Everything ok in the alpha mansion?” Liam asked nonchalantly.

“Look who’s a little gossip,” Isaac said with mock accusation, making Liam blush.

“I’m sorry, I don’t want to be nosy. But he’s my alpha and you’re his boyfriend, and you know how it is with the pack bond. I miss being with all of you,” Liam confessed, keeping his eyes on the road. “And I have the right to worry about Scott. And that extends to you, I guess…”

Isaac looked at Liam fondly. He knew precisely what he meant, and having the pack so spread out was a dull ache in all of their cores.

“We’re actually all good. You’ve already seen our werewolf den in Davis. It’s small but we decorated it ourselves. We try to visit Melissa and Chris once a month. He’s busy with lacrosse as well, but I don’t play it anymore. What else? I don’t know! We’re quite happy. All’s well. So yeah, that. I don’t know what else you want me to tell you.”

“Anything really. I just need some quality pack feel.”

“Then I don’t know why you haven’t visited us before, to be fair. That’s always a fun night out.”

“Would it?”

“You bet! And you would get your pack needs fully satisfied, because you’d get an overdose of Scott, because last night and this morning don’t really count.”

Liam’s face changed when he heard that. His inner wolf really wanted something like that, so he beamed his silliest smile.

“He’s all big alpha stuff, but he misses you all as well,” Isaac assured the other beta. “He bit you. Your mutual bond is very strong, and he really cares for you. In fact, I think he’s jealous of our little holiday.”

“Yeah! Beta roadtrip!” Liam said smugly, nodding slowly as he said it. “Mothers, lock your daugh—I mean your sons— lock your children! Crap!”

Isaac laughed so much he almost chocked. They remained silent for a while after that, just listening to the radio, but it was evident that Liam was worrying about something else, and Isaac noticed.

“Spit it out, Liam.”

“What?”

“Whatever you’re mulling in that head of yours.”

“Hm… I just… I don’t know how to say it.”

“Out loud.”

Liam turned and glared at Isaac, and then he huffed and said: “I don’t think I ever had a chance, but I think I should apologise.”

That Isaac had never expected.

“Apologise? What for?”

“You know… for last summer… for how I reacted when I knew that you were like _into_ Scott, and that you were together.”

The previous summer, when Isaac returned to California to help the pack fight off an evil cult that was trying to take over Beacon Hills, Scott and Isaac got together. Liam was not jealous, but he was concerned about Isaac – especially because the last ‘old friend’ from Scott’s past that had suddenly turned up had been Theo. Liam was so overprotective of Scott that he might have threatened Isaac and given him the ‘dad talk’.

“That’s ok, no need to apologise,” Isaac conceded. “I can understand why you did it. I mean, if any other werewolf dared to come that close to Scott they’d end up scattered across the state in small pieces.”

“Possessive boyfriend much?”

Isaac chuckled. “Maybe. So keep your dirty paws off him.”

“That’s alright. But I was not dating him! It was just that I didn’t know who you were. And after Theo…”

“Listen, Liam. That’s the past. It was funny, and I really appreciated it, because I could see that you all had really taken care of Scott while I was away.”

“Exactly. And I can share him with you,” Liam added as an afterthought. “You’re not that bad after all.”

“Did I just get a compliment from you?”

“Maybe,” Liam shrugged his shoulders as Isaac grinned. “So when did you know that you liked Scott?”

“You really want the full story, don’t you?”

“Well, everybody seemed to know who you were. And Lydia and Derek were not surprised when you turned up drooling all over Scott—don’t dare deny it,” Liam warned with a knowing grin and an accusatory finger before Isaac could interrupt. “I _saw_ how you looked at him!”

That was Isaac’s turn to blush. He hated the way it had always been so annoyingly evident to everyone that he really _really_ liked Scott. To everyone except Scott, obviously. He had lived in blissed ignorance until Lydia broke the news to him.

“I knew him from school, but we were not really friends. He was always with Stiles. He sucked at lacrosse, because of his asthma. And I never really paid much attention to him. Not more than I paid to any other guy back then. I never really talked to him that much anyways. And then this one day he had an asthma attack and while Stiles rushed to get his medication thingie, well… I just sat by him, holding his hand, listening to him wheeze, and…” Isaac was staring into the distance with a smile on his face as he remembered. “And for the first time I looked into his eyes –like properly looked into them—and that was it. He became my big fat secret crush.”

“Awwww,” Liam cooed.

“Shut up, shortarse!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever… How awkward was it then when you lived with Mrs McCall?”

“Ah, well…” Isaac scratched the back of his head as he remembered. “That was odd. But by then he had been _so_ into Allison, as in unbelievably into her. Ask Stiles, he’ll tell you more. I forced myself to think that it was all platonic, and I was happy to be his friend. He then was into Kira, so I never thought I stood a chance. You remember Iestyn?” Isaac suddenly asked.

“Who? Your friend from back in France?”

“Yes, him. Well, when I was in France after… after Allison… one day I felt my bond with Scott suddenly disappear,” Isaac gulped and his eyes went glassy as he remembered. “That was when Theo tried to kill him.”

Liam shifted uncomfortably in his seat, trying to repress the memories about his own role that evening.

“And then he came back to life. I was a complete emotional wreck, and Iestyn came over and tried to make me feel better. He made me realise that what I felt for Scott was much deeper than what I acknowledged myself.” Isaac did not mention how his inner wolf had never let him forget about his feelings about Scott, but that was perhaps too personal. “And the rest well… you know. You were there for most of it.”

“I was, and it was sickeningly disgusting,” Liam joked and Isaac backslapped him on the chest.

“Are there any girls back in Denver waiting for you then?” Isaac abruptly and shamelessly changed topic.

“Uh, er… no. Not really…”

“Any _boys_?” Isaac said in a suggestive tone.

“No, thanks. I think I’ll pass on them,” Liam shook his head with a smile. “There’s you two and then Jackson and Ethan, and Mason and Corey. I think our pack has got its LGTB quota.”

“Fair enough,” Isaac replied.

And before Isaac kept on asking about Liam’s love life, the younger beta decided to change topic.

“What about…”

_Ask Isaac about the pack before his time[[A2]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531467)  
_

_Ask Isaac about his time in France[[A3]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531479)  
_

_Talk about Liam’s life in college[[A4]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531506)  
_

_Just listen to the radio[[B]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531512) (jump to next section)_


	3. A2

“… have you got any juicy stories about the pack in the early days?”

“What do you mean?” Isaac wondered. “Like during the few months in between me getting bitten and you getting bitten?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought you knew about it.”

“Yes, well… I know about the kanima and Jackson, and how Peter was the alpha. And there was that weird evil druid, and the alpha pack. And I know that Stiles was possessed by an evil Japanese fox-demon,” Liam summarised in a few words what had been, for Isaac, a lot of defining moments and painful memories of his teenage years.

Isaac zoned out as he got lost in his own memories of those days. When his dad was killed by Jackson; when he had been willing to kill Lydia. He thought about Erica and Boyd and how they lived in that creepy train depot with Derek. He felt the ghost prick of Peter’s claws in his neck. He thought about the human sacrifices of the darach, and about that time when he rescued their parents from the root cellar. He remembered waking up in the hospital. Twice. Once after being shot and another after being almost completely electrocuted. He thought about Allison. Isaac sighed.

“Hey, Isaac,” Liam called him. Obviously, he had not heard whatever Liam had asked. “Are you ok?”

“Yes,” he lied. “It’s just that… too much happened in those few months. And not all of it good.”

“I’m sorry Isaac, I didn’t mean to—“

“I know, Liam. I know. It’s not your fault.”

“I just… dunno. I wanted to think that the history of our pack has not always been defined by supernatural crises. I wanted to think that there must have been good moments as well…”

Isaac thought carefully for a few seconds. He knew what Liam meant. They had few happy memories as a pack, and it was not healthy to define their group by the number of enemies that they had overcome and the prize they had to pay.

“There was that time when Stiles and Scott wanted to get into a rave, but they didn’t have any tickets,” Isaac eventually said with a half-smile. “They thought they were being all secretive and subtle, but I could hear them.”

Isaac chuckled as he remembered the scene in the locker room.

“We were getting ready for practice, and they were getting on my nerves, so I just went to them and told them ‘how do you two losers even survive?’ and then I got them the tickets.”

“You said that to Scott? As in your big crush Scott McCall?”

“Yes, I did…” As an afterthought, he added “I was having a bit of a phase.”

Liam snorted, but was happy with the explanation.

“And did you get them the tickets?”

“I did. I roughed Greenberg up and got his two tickets for them.”

Liam laughed, because he could perfectly imagine Isaac having a ‘chat’ with Greenberg.

“I kissed Jackson that night.”

“You what?!” Liam blurted, not really believing what he had just heard.

“Yeah, I did,” Isaac said smugly. “And then I knocked him out with a syringe. There was enough ketamine to knock a horse cold.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“I also tried to ask Derek about Cora.”

“You tried to get _Derek_ to talk about actual human stuff?”

“Yeah…” Isaac admitted with a chuckle. “He wasn’t impressed.”

“And did you ever get together as a pack? You know, like we do now,” Liam insisted. “You didn’t have dinner and film nights?”

“I don’t know where you get these crazy ideas from, Liam. We were quite a dysfunctional pack at the best of times. At the worst we were being hunted down and running for our lives…”

“I know,” the younger beta deflated. “It was not much different later, when I was bitten. I don’t know what I was expecting… I kind of wanted to have some happy pack memories we all shared.”

“We do have some,” Isaac tried to cheer him up. “If you ignore the evil cult, last summer, when we were all together in Beacon Hills, was not that bad.”

Liam nodded, but they fell silent again. They did not have much more to say. Their pack history was not particularly blessed with nice moments. Isaac certainly could remember very few, which saddened him. His inner wolf felt it, and he tried to console him, licking him from within. His feelings must have pulsated to Scott through their bond, because soon enough he felt his boyfriend sending him a gentle nudge, which was all he needed to curl his lips into a smile. He must have done the same with Liam, because both were suddenly feeling better. One thing that they would always have was comfort and support from each other.

Isaac searched for his water bottle and offered Liam some before deciding that they needed something more cheerful to listen to. He turned the dial left and right and changed the radio station until he found one they both liked. When Rihanna began to play on the radio, both betas ended up dancing in their seats, to their mutual amusement.

“I would have never expected that. Isaac Lahey: lord of the Dance.”

“Well, that comes to show that you can’t judge a werewolf by his cover.”

“That’s not how the saying goes, Isaac.”

“Yeah well… you say potato, I say turnip,” Isaac said with a dead-serious face.

“Oh god, you’re worse than my dad!”

Both laughed at that, Isaac rubbing tears from his eyes.

“But now, seriously…”

_Ask Isaac about him and Scott[[A1]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531449)  
_

_Ask Isaac about his time in France[[A3]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531479)  
_

_Talk about Liam’s life in college[[A4]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531506)  
_

_Just listen to the radio[[B]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531512) (jump to next section)_


	4. A3

“…What were you doing in France all that time?”

“Mostly baking,” Isaac answered, looking out the window.

“Fine, don’t tell me then,” Liam rolled his eyes.

“No, it’s true! I worked in a bakery. That’s how I learnt most of my French.”

“Are you for real?”

“Yeah. I did it part-time. I mean, I did a normal life: I went to high school, passed my exams somehow, I had to change lacrosse for rugby, and I _really_ worked in a bakery!” Isaac insisted, even if Liam was still unsure if he wanted to believe him. “I baked croissants and loaves of bread, and sold them to the old ladies. The old ladies _loved_ me.”

“You dirty lady killer… I’m going to tell Scott!” Liam threatened with a grin.

“They queued in the shop and they would all whisper things to each other, but I could hear them perfectly,” Isaac remembered with a smile. “It was all like, ‘what is he doing here’, and ‘the poor boy, living alone with his uncle’, and ‘he’s so skinny… he needs to eat more’. I think I was the first American to ever turn up there since the War. Whenever I sold them bread they always told me how handsome I was, how much my French was improving, and how tasty the croissants were. My boss was not impressed, because he was the one who actually did most of them, I just rolled them and put them in the oven.”

“Sounds fun.”

“It’s not fun to wake up that early – that much I can tell you!”

Isaac went on telling what living in a village in the south of France was like. He ignored all the bits about the nemeton, the druids, and the evil cult that happened to run the village, because Liam knew those already. But he told Liam about the Sunday market, and the open-air cinema they set up during the summer. He mentioned the time he had visited Toulouse and the Roman ruins in Arles, which were his two only trips outside Bégnan while he lived in France, other than the beach trip he went on right before the nemeton summoning.

Liam asked if he kept in contact with any of the friends he had made back then, and that was a difficult question. He had never checked, but a significant proportion of his classmates had been directly involved in the cult, so those who survived the sacrifices had been arrested. The same applied to his rugby teammates. Guilhem, for instance, whom Isaac had freed from the mercenaries that had rounded up the outsiders in the village, had moved to Toulouse. André, who had invited Isaac to spend one Christmas with him and his family, had also moved away. They were now living in Narbonne.

Isaac was mostly in contact with the Argents. He was now technically and officially one of them himself, so Fred and Louise had become his cousins. They texted him every now and then to ask about how he was doing, and Isaac dutifully kept them updated. Patrice, similarly, had become his uncle – the kind of uncle that has a never-ending repertoire of bad puns and dad jokes and is proud of them. There was also Iestyn, of course. He was his best friend from his time in France, and they texted each other every week. The plans to visit the UK that year came to nothing, which was a bummer, and now they were suggesting perhaps a trip in the autumn.

“I think you’d have liked it,” Isaac concluded. “Visiting France, I mean.”

“It sounds cool, but I don’t think I could do that for—how many years were you there?”

“Three.”

“Nah. I’ll go on a holiday. That’ll be enough for me,” Liam decided.

“Well, if we save enough money and if you’re extra nice to Chris, I’m sure we can arrange to go,” Isaac casually offered.

“You’d take me to France?”

“If you put it like that you make it sound like I should be taking Scott,” Isaac clarified. “I mean, nothing is stopping us from going all together. Like a pack trip.”

“Are we on a pack trip now?”

“There’s not enough of us. This is purely a research trip,” Isaac informed him.

“The fact that you are overly excited about going camping has _nothing_ to do with your choice of research location.”

“None whatsoever,” Isaac shook his head, beaming while he did so.

“But just imagine the entire pack went on a holiday together?”

“Do you mean a pack holiday?”

“That was a dreadful joke,” Liam deadpanned.

“I know, and I’m not ashamed.”

“But just think about it. All jumping on a minivan and going somewhere together. Derek would _loathe_ that.”

“I don’t think we’d ever convince Derek to come on a holiday with us.”

Both werewolves exploded in laughter at the idea of Derek wearing shorts and a t-shirt, in flip-flops and with a straw hat. From there they went on to imagine how would each of their other pack mates do in their fictive summer holiday. They were already in recurring fits of laughter so every idea was hilarious, no matter what they suggested: Stiles with painful tan-lines, Mason lost in a museum, Scott trying to order something in French, Lydia complaining at a frightened hotel manager, Scott tasting foreign food, Stiles failing to buy train tickets… anything. Things were funnier and funnier.

At one point Isaac, still crying, begged Liam to stop because his cheeks and his sides hurt from so much laughing. Soon after, they had to stop again to stretch their legs and for a toilet break. Isaac texted Scott an update and Liam rang his step-dad. It was getting late, but they still had a long way to go.

When they got back in the car, and when Liam got bored of counting lampposts, he asked Isaac again.

_Ask Isaac about him and Scott[[A1]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531449)  
_

_Ask Isaac about the pack before his time[[A2]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531467)  
_

_Talk about Liam’s life in college[[A4]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531506)  
_

_Just listen to the radio[[B]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531512) (jump to next section)_


	5. A4

“Have you ever been to Denver?”

“No, I haven’t,” Isaac replied. “Is it any good?”

“Well, I’m not a big fan of skiing, which they are obsessed with, but I’m enjoying living there. The university is alright.”

“Just alright? Isaac arched an eyebrow.

“Yeah, not awesome, not dreadful. The cafeteria is gross – never eat there, but the people are nice, and there are many cool places to go in town.”

“Really?” Isaac was not very convinced.

“Yeah. Totally. You should come. You’ll meet my friends and we’ll go to this bar we like.”

“I’m sure you can’t drink in a bar.”

“I’m sure we don’t care about drinking, because we can’t get drunk!”

Isaac gave Liam a mysterious smile, and when the younger beta asked him about it, Isaac told him about the beach party he had had last year with Jackson and Ethan, and how there was a way of spiking booze with special druidic plants so that werewolves could _actually_ get drunk.

“Have you got any of that stuff?”

“That’s what Jackson asked, but no, I don’t have any.”

“That’s ok. We can order the Mountain Monster Burger when we go there. If you eat it all you get a t-shirt and your picture on the wall.”

“That’s the kind of thing that sounds awesome but that Scott would tell us not to do.”

“Why is your boyfriend such a spoilsport?” Liam moaned and Isaac laughed.

“I don’t know… Who wouldn’t like to take advantage of our supernatural abilities to eat the biggest burger on a menu for eternal local glory?”

“Exactly!” Liam agreed. Both looked at each other with matching smiles and fist-bumped.

“How are you liking your course?” Isaac asked, feeling it was his turn to interrogate his pack mate.

Liam huffed and then bit his lip.

“I don’t know... I mean, I’m doing it and I got my lacrosse scholarship—“

“Cheat!” Isaac teased, and Liam punched him in the arm.

“Shut up. You don’t even go to a real university!”

“I do,” Isaac said, slightly offended. “Why are we driving eleven-hundred miles into the middle of nowhere otherwise? I have homework to do, you know?”

“Fine. But you don’t go to lectures or classes. You only do your assignments online.”

“Now you’re simply jealous.”

“Oh, shut up,” Liam snapped. “You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t,” Isaac replied defensively.

“Ok, ok. I’m sorry, Isaac.”

“Liam,” Isaac said, suddenly serious. “Are you sure all is ok?”

Liam was quiet for a few seconds, seriously thinking about his answer.

“I’m not sure…”

Isaac felt that Liam had more to say, but he did not prompt him to say more. He just gave him time to put his thoughts in order. Eventually, Liam spoke again.

“It’s just… I have my friends there, and they’re all great, but they are not… I can’t tell them about me being a werewolf. I’m all on my supernatural own there.”

“You know we’re just a phone call away, right? You _know_ that if you need us Scott and I will jump on the first flight?”

“I know. And Stiles and Mason and Malia. I know I can count on you, but you’re still far away. What if something happens?”

“Like what?”

“What if I get really angry?”

“You’ve been a werewolf for how long? Three or four years?” Isaac tried to reassure his friend. “We know that you have everything under control.”

“I… I don’t fully trust myself,” he admitted.

Liam knew he was not alone, and he was not lonely. But he was isolated from his pack and from any other people who knew about the supernatural. Liam also had a history of losing control, and he was afraid that the combination of being (in that sense) alone and without anyone who could keep him in check, he might do something he would regret. Or worse—something Scott could not forgive. Liam did not want to be a lone wolf. Even if he had kept his cool every single full moon ever since he had moved to Denver, there was always a dark shadow at the back of his mind.

“Do you want us to chain you to a tree?”

“You’re an idiot,” Liam managed a smile as he said that.

“Ok, I’m going to try something, don’t freak out.”

“What are you going to do?”

“You remember when I sent that text from the forest in France?”

“Yeah, well, how could I forget? Scott gave us the fright of a lifetime when—oh.”

Liam remembered about the summer and understood that Isaac was going to reach for him through their pack bond. Last summer Scott received a text from an unknown French number, warning him about an upcoming danger. When he realised that it was Isaac who had tried to warn them (and that Isaac was in a life-or-death situation), Scott panicked. The alpha tried to search for him through the pack bond, and this resulted in Scott sending in one pulse all his Isaac-related emotions across the pack. These had been mostly fear for the beta’s life, but also guilt for having forgotten about him. When Liam felt what Scott had shared, he cried.

“Ok, give me a second, let me try.”

Isaac focused and visualised Inner Wolf. He asked him to find Liam’s pack bond, which he had felt and knew was there, but had never actually done anything about it. Gently and with great care, Isaac’s inner wolf nudged the bright silver ethereal link that he shared with Liam. Liam immediately sensed Isaac’s presence.

It had been the smallest of nudges, and it had taken effort and concentration because he was not used to doing it, but the way Liam looked at him told him that he had done it right.

“Don’t you get overexcited and all mushy with me now,” Isaac warned. “But for any supernatural emotional emergency you have all the pack there for you. Maybe not all of them, because they secretly hate you”—because he was still Isaac and he _had_ to—“but at least you can count on me.”

Liam punched him again, but said nothing else. Not that he needed to say anything – Isaac could sense their connection, and knew that Liam was feeling better and reassured.

“Enough of this,” Isaac announced. “Tell me about these friends of yours. I need to give them my thumbs up.”

Liam glared at Isaac, who pulled his smuggest grin.

“Don’t look at me like that. You’re the pack pup, and this is how it goes. Come on. Spit.”

Liam rolled his eyes, but he obliged. He told him about the people in his dorm, about his friends from his course, and about his friends from lacrosse. The older beta nodded emphatically and asked extra questions from time to time. Eventually, he told Liam that he approved of all of his friends, which earned him a sarcastic ‘thank you’.

When the silence grew too long, and before Isaac could bring up any more annoying questions, Liam asked…

_Ask Isaac about him and Scott[[A1]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531449)  
_

_Ask Isaac about the pack before his time[[A2]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531467)  
_

_Ask Isaac about his time in France[[A3]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531479)  
_

_Just listen to the radio[[B]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531512) (jump to next section)_


	6. B

“Never mind,” Liam concluded. “It was just a silly question.”

“Coming from you? _Never_ …” Isaac teased. “I can _not_ imagine you asking silly questions. Or falling into holes,” he added after a pause.

“How-?” Liam asked, his mouth open wide in surprise. “How do you know about—Don’t tell me. It was Stiles.”

“Bless his cotton socks,” Isaac grinned as Liam huffed.

They listened to the radio, making small talk for the rest of the trip. They changed sides often, so both could have a rest from driving, and they sent regular updates to their pack group chat.

Eventually, when even their werewolf stamina was failing, they reached their destination. It was long after midnight. The camping was closed and they did not particularly fancy setting up their tents in the dark, which is why they had booked in advance a room in a motel in the nearest town.

The morning after, after a very necessary shower and a strong coffee, they drove the short distance to the park. They went into the park office first, where Isaac had some paperwork to do (which was mostly letting the rangers know that they were going to be up in the mountains camping and researching) before they could head into their actual camping spot. Meanwhile, Liam walked through the shop, where he picked up a book of local legends and myths.

Liam read briefly through the pages and found it fascinating. He called Isaac over when he finished talking with the rangers, and showed him the book. Isaac opened his eyes wide and nodded as he pouted. He grabbed the book from Liam’s hand and threw it into the basket where he had already stocked extra supplies, batteries, and the like. They paid for everything, had a sandwich in the cafeteria, and packed all their stuff.

They left the Jeep in the car park, and they walked along the path all the way to their designated camping spot. It was a small clearing overlooking a small lake. They were surrounded by high redwoods and pines, and there were large boulders and other interesting rock formations within sight. They reached the spot not long after noon. They sat down for a well-deserved rest and had their first official camping lunch. After that, they set up their tents and put their food in their bear-proof containers. They built a fire and Isaac decided that they would spend the afternoon planning ahead. Or, at least, that was what Isaac needed to do.

While Isaac pulled out his maps and notebooks and identified the routes they had to follow to get to the rock formations he wanted to study, Liam explored around their camp. He identified a small brook from where they could filter water, he gathered more fire wood and enjoyed the majestic surroundings. Isaac joined him in a short hike around ‘their’ lake before it got too dark, they were back before sunset.

While Isaac rebuilt the fire to make dinner, Liam read his newly acquired book of legends with his torch. They cooked baked beans with rice, which they ate from their tin plates, and brewed a pot of tea. Liam went to the lake to wash the pots with cold water and a sponge, while Isaac put more wood in the fire.

The sky above got darker and darker. The landscape around them had been breath-taking, but the night-sky above them left them completely speechless. In the moonless night, they could see the Milky Way crossing the sky. There were so many stars that Isaac had difficulty telling the constellations apart. The night was not only completely dark, but it was also completely silent – there was no background noise of cars or roads, or any other sign of civilisation. They were truly out in the wild, and had it not been for the signalled path they had walked that morning, they could have believed that they were in an unexplored corner of the world.

“My mum used to tell us about the constellations,” Isaac suddenly said unprompted.

Liam froze when he heard that. He did not know how to react. From Scott and Stiles he knew about Isaac’s family, even if none of them knew much about his mother and brother other than the fact that they had died years ago. Liam was sure that the story Isaac had just blurted was the kind of thing that probably only Scott knew, if at all. He was truly surprised to see that Isaac was sharing it with him.

“Er…” Liam said, full of eloquence. “Are you ok, Isaac?” The younger beta had sensed that Isaac’s mood had turned.

“Yeah, it’s just that… I don’t have many opportunities to stargaze. For many years I refused to do it, you know? Even if I liked it. Looking at the stars and guessing all the weird Greek and Roman myths about them. Because it was something that we did with our mum. But here and now… I don’t know. It feels different, it feels _right_.” Isaac paused. Liam did not speak. “I think I wouldn’t mind doing it again.”

Liam did not know what to say. His inner wolf was pushing him to get closer to Isaac and offer him some sort of physical comfort. His pack mate needed it. So he stood up and walked to him so he could seat by his side. Isaac looked at him when he sat down with a melancholic smile, and Liam threw an arm over his shoulders, bringing him in for a quick hug.

“So what’s that there?” Liam asked, pointing at a star at random once he sensed Isaac feeling better.

“What, that one?”

Liam did not know if he was pointing at the same one. There were _too many_.

“Yeah, why not. Just tell me some of those stories.”

Isaac told him the three or four he remembered best, trying to locate the constellations in the sky. After a while it got too cold and, on top of that, they were not fully recovered from the long drive the previous day, so they called it a night and went to their tents.

***

In the morning, Liam volunteered to make breakfast as Isaac went off to use the gents’ bush. Even if this was Isaac’s research expedition, Liam was more than hyped. Both he and his inner wolf were excited to be in the great outdoors, and the stories he had read in his book had fuelled his dreams. He could not stop thinking about the silver towers, Bigfoot, and bear shape-shifters that apparently populated these mountains.

“Coffee is ready!” Liam called as he munched on a chocolate-chip cookie.

“Coming!” Isaac replied from the bushes.

Liam saw a raccoon in the corner of his eye circling around their camp, no doubt wishing he could get his little paws on Liam’s breakfast, but the werewolf would not share and, with glowing eyes, he growled the little mammal away.

“What did you just do?”

“Just making forest friends,” Liam said. “Where are we going today, boss-man?”

That made Isaac chuckle.

“Well, there are two main formations I need to study.”

“Where are they?”

“Over there,” Isaac pointed in the general direction of the higher peaks.

“We’re not climbing up there, are we?”

“Why? You scared?”

“No. Not at all,” Liam replied. “It just looks very high up.”

“It looks like, but we are never walking any further than a three hour hike from here, so we will be coming back to base camp every evening.”

“Wow, this is our base camp now?”

“Yup.”

“Don’t we need a flag or something to mark it as ours?”

“I already pissed against a tree.”

“You’re gross!” Liam shook his head as Isaac giggled.

“Anyways,” he continued. “We’re here already. It’s too late to pull out. And you don’t want Scott to find out that you let me walk into the wilderness on my own, right?”

“A)” Liam enumerated. “I would never do that. Because pack. And b) that’s extortion.”

“Come on. Stop moaning and get ready.”

“Fine,” Liam rolled his eyes and dragged his feet to his tent to get his backpack ready for the day. “Which way are we going up first?”

_Take the mountain path[[D]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531746)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be here an alternative route: to take the forest path. But that will have to wait, sorry


	7. D

They decided to take the mountain path, which that day appeared more interesting.

As they walked to Isaac’s designated destination, the taller beta explained a bit of what he wanted to do that day. Liam nodded and smiled, but most of it went over his head. He mentioned boring things like measuring stones, taking pictures of rocks, and incomprehensible stuff about folds, anticlines, outcrops, and karsts, and God knew what else. He mentioned that he had bought a strong acid with him to put rocks in, which to Liam sounded cool. Despite the jargon, Liam was happy enough to go out with the other beta for a day out.

As they ascended towards the upper parts of the mountain the tree cover became thinner and there were more and more pockets and patches of snow that had not melted yet.

_Go to[[DB]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531767)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be another storyline option here, but this will have to wait, sorry!


	8. DB

They continued down the path that led up the mountain until Isaac found a spot he liked and from where he could observe the formations he wanted to study, they decided to stop there. Liam then found himself a nice sunny rock and sat there while the other werewolf took pictures, wrote things on his map, and took measurements with a theodolite app on his phone.

Liam sat there, making small talk, although at one point he simply stopped, and reclined on the boulder with his hands behind his back, drinking in his surroundings. He had to admit that it was a stunning landscape, with an enormous blue sky framing it. The cool fresh air and the scents of nature were purer there than in the Beacon Hills preserve. His inner wolf was very content.

From time to time Liam would stare at Isaac absorbed in his work and chuckle: his friend could get extremely excited about his rocky formation, and he would hum songs with his tongue sticking out when he was scribbling his data on his pad or focusing hard on his map. After a while, Liam told Isaac that he was going to go for a quick walk around, and the other werewolf simply nodded in approval as he chewed on a pencil.

Liam walked off the path onto the wild gentle slope. There were patches of snow in the shadowy areas behind thickets of vegetation or rocks. In the areas with direct sunlight the ice had long gone, and the moss and the grass shone bright fresh green. He could sense and hear the animals slowly waking up from their hibernation and he saw animals rustling in the distance. Liam kept walking lazily with his hands in his pockets and enjoying the warm sunshine on his face when he noticed something shiny at his feet. He bent over and noticed that it was a coin.

_What are the chances of finding a shiny quarter in the middle of the wilderness?_

Liam bent over to have a proper look and carefully picked it up. It was very cold from being on the ground, and it was all muddy on the underside, but once he picked it up he realised that it was not a quarter. It was too shiny and too thick. It was also quite heavy, and he guessed that it must be real silver. The face of the coin had an unreadable legend around it, but the centre showed, very clearly, a tall slender tower. His eyes opened wide and, holding tightly to the coin, he rushed towards Isaac.

“Isaac!” Liam called as he ran. “Isaac! Look what I found!”

“Easy there, Liam,” Isaac said with surprise when the other beta got to him. “What have you found?”

“Look, I found a coin,” Liam opened his hand and showed his find.

“Oh,” Isaac deadpanned. “A shiny quarter. Well done, shortarse.”

“It’s _not_ a quarter,” he punched the taller werewolf on his arm. “It’s silver—“

“Oh, then be careful. You know about werewolves and silver…”

“Urghh!” Liam groaned as Isaac giggled.

“Ok, sorry, Liam. Let me have a look,” his friend asked with sincere curiosity. “It has a tower,” he said when he had a chance to inspect it.

“It’s not just a tower,” Liam added overexcited. “It’s a _silver_ tower.”

“A what?”

“It was in my book! There’s a legend around these mountains. A myth about a mysterious and lost kingdom high in the mountains, beyond the clouds, and the plateau of Leng. In this kingdom there are wise men, who gather all existing knowledge in their silver towers and—“

“I’m going to stop you there,” Isaac interrupted. “Because that’s a bad rip-off of the Istari and Saruman’s tower, and I can’t have that.”

“What are you on about?”

“Read _The Lord of the Rings_.”

“No, but Isaac, _listen_ ,” Liam insisted. “Myths and legends; werewolves, banshees and kanimas… what if this is true as well?”

“What? A legend in a book you bought from the gift shop of a natural park?”

“God, you’re annoying!”

“Ok, let me have a look at that coin,” Isaac asked, extending his hand towards Liam.

“No.”

“Liam, come on. I just want to have a look.”

“No! Keep your paws off!” Liam warned as Isaac tried to snatch the coin out of his hand.

“Please, Liam! Honest, I really think there could be something true about your story.”

“No, you’re just going to pull my leg!”

“No, I won’t!”

Isaac tried to get the coin out of Liam’s fist, but the shorter beta was pushing him away. They ended up tangled in such a way that Isaac was grabbing Liam’s wrist and Liam was elbowing Isaac in the gut. Then, out of nowhere, Isaac managed to get his fingers in Liam’s fist, but Liam tripped him over by kicking his feet from under him. Isaac fell down like a sack of potatoes, but he pulled Liam down with him, with such bad luck that Liam let go of the coin, and it flew away into the rocks down the slope, where it disappeared from sight.

“Look what you’ve done!” Isaac rolled his eyes.

“What do you mean? That was you!”

“I’m so going to tell Scott you lost our treasured silver coin of the mystic flying towers.”

Liam huffed as he rolled off and stood up. Isaac was giggling, still on the wet grass, and Liam kicked him in the balls. Isaac kept on giggling through tears of pain as he bent over trying to protect his vulnerables.

“Idiot,” Liam muttered as he walked away.

“Hey, hey, Liam, I’m sorry!” Isaac said as he stood up, catching up his breath from all his laughing. “I mean it, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, right,” Liam shrugged him off before he could touch him.

“Hey, listen,” Isaac dashed ahead so he stood right in front of Liam, who was still fuming. “I’m sorry. Listen to my heartbeat. I _really_ mean it. Please.”

Liam looked angrily at Isaac, who was giving him an apologetic smile. He rolled his eyes and Isaac grinned even more pleadingly. The younger beta eventually gave up.

“God, you’re annoying.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before. But please, Liam: tell me about these tower kingdoms. I’ll make your sandwich.”

Liam pondered the offer for a second before nodding and following Isaac to the place where they had dropped their backpacks.

“Ok, but don’t go easy on the ham.”

“Sure thing.”

“So, according to my book…” Liam began to explain as they sat down and Isaac began to make their lunch. He read the entire entry out of the book in the end, narrating the story of the wise wizards of the clouds, and how for generations there had been stories about these towers in this remote corner of the Rockies.

By the time they finished their sandwiches, Liam had finished the story, and Isaac certainly looked impressed.

“And you are sure that these visions of flying towers are not just people breathing in thin air?”

“I didn’t say that,” Liam replied cautiously. He could sense Isaac was not considering his story carefully, trying to understand what the nugget of truth under all the layers of legend and fiction was.

“Ok,” the taller beta summarised as he pulled out two oranges and gave one to Liam. “So in these very high mountains there are stories about a mystic magic kingdom of wise old men who hide under a cloak of clouds?”

“Roughly that.”

“And they –“

Isaac stopped mid-sentence, staring at something behind Liam.

“What’s wrong with you now?”

“Fuck me sideways, I think your lunacy is contagious,” Isaac continued, his mouth gaping and still staring into the distance.

“What?”

“I think… I mean, look… It’s just that…”

“Isaac, spit it out.”

“Just look!”

“I won’t fall for that,” Liam shook his head and took another bite of his orange.

“No! Honestly, Liam, look!” Isaac was now pointing emphatically. “It’s them!”

“Them what?” Liam was getting tired of that joke now.

“The towers. In the clouds. The _Silver Towers_!”

_Liam turns around to look[[DB1a]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531827)  
_

_Liam ignores Isaac and does not look[[DB1b]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531848)  
_


	9. DB1a

“What do you mean?” Liam cannot believe it. He swallows hard his last bite and turns around.

“Just… there… Look!”

And there, in the distance ahead of them, in between the cold mists that formed at the top of the mountain, they could see two large cylindrical towers. They were glistening white, with polished surfaces that shone like a mirror. They had gabled roofs and broad balconies protruding from the tops, and smaller balconies and other platforms projecting from the middle sections of the structure.

“What did you put in those sandwiches?”

“I’m not sure anymore… Are you also seeing that?” Isaac asked.

“You mean the two large massive cloudy towers?”

“Those two large massive cloudy towers.”

“Yep,” Liam nodded slowly. “I can see them.”

Their blood ran cold and they stood frozen on their spot for a second, before a gentle breeze brought more clouds across and the towers disappeared from sight.

“That can’t be.”

“Well, you saw it,” Isaac insisted. “You’re the one who was trying to convince me about the existence of the towers!”

“Yes, but I was not expecting it to be like… now so soon? It can’t be, right?”

“But it is. You saw it. I saw it. My erm… my inner wolf saw it…” Isaac blushed a little. He still felt it was either rude or too intimate to talk about his inner wolf. He had only spoken about it with Scott and with Iestyn.

“I… er… I know what you mean,” Liam said, the same embarrassment flushing in his cheeks. “I- I- I- I saw it?”

“Well,” Isaac said, shaking his head and drinking from his water bottle. “That was not a mountain chalet, and it was not a radio tower. So I say we go there and find out.”

“Are you insane?”

“Oh, so I’m the crazy one now who believes in fairy castles in the clouds.”

“No, Isaac, I mean… Just that… But… what about your dissertation?”

“I have enough, and we still have tomorrow.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Liam was suddenly worried. He was happy not to have any supernatural encounters – he really wanted to enjoy his long weekend out in the great outdoors.

“Yes. I am sure. Finish your lunch,” Isaac ordered as he put his notebooks and his maps away in his backpack. “We’re off to find the lost cloud kingdom of Leng!”

_Go and find the tower[[DB2a]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531863)  
_

_Don’t be silly, Isaac[[DB2b](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531872)]  
_


	10. DB1b

Liam looked unimpressed.

“Really? We’re playing this?”

“I’m telling you, Liam! They’re right there!”

Isaac was struggling to keep his straight face by this point.

“I don’t buy that, Isaac.”

“Alright, yeah, sorry,” Isaac grinned and chuckled. “I was pulling your leg.”

Liam shook his head as he tried to supress a smile.

“You’re an idiot.”

“I’m sorry!” Isaac’s smile widened. “But you were so into that story of the silver towers!”

“What about the coin?”

“We’ll never know now, will we? Maybe your cloud wizards just dropped their small change.”

“You _really_ are an idiot,” Liam said while he smiled.

“Yeah, but that’s why we get along so well. Anyways, hurry up with your lunch. We need to go there,” Isaac pointed with his eyes as he took a final bite.

“Wait- where?” Liam looked around. “Up _there_?”

“I need to go and see that ridge, Liam.”

“That’s _miles_ away,” Liam moaned, his shoulder slouching.

“Hurry up then. The earlier we leave, the sooner we’ll be back,” Isaac concluded, patting Liam’s shoulder as he stood up to put everything back in his rucksack.

“Sometimes I really hate you,” Liam muttered as he finished his orange, knowing well that Isaac could hear him regardless.

“I’ll tell Scott you said that!”

They quickly packed everything and got ready to walk further. Isaac looked carefully at his map, trying to navigate the paths that criss-crossed the forest. Liam, just as he had been doing earlier, walked lazily behind him, admiring the surroundings, while his inner wolf got increasingly overexcited about the unlimited amount of stimuli: he could sense chipmunks on the trees, birds big and small, critters and crawlers in the rotten debris of the forest floor, and something else he could not really identify.

“Come on, you and your tiny legs are lagging behind!”

“Oh grow up, Isaac.”

“I already did. It’s you who’s still five foot tall.”

“Just jump off that cliff and die, will you?”

“Harsh?”

Liam stormed up ahead, shouldering Isaac on his way.

“Hey, hey, Liam, wait.”

“Isaac, I’m getting quite fed up with all that.”

“Ok, ok. I’m sorry,” Isaac apologised.

“Just stop being a jerk. You know? It really gets—”

Liam stopped mid-sentence, cocking his head to the side. His inner wolf was on alert – they had heard something rustling behind them. He got a whiff of the same unidentified scent again. Isaac tried to say something, but Liam quickly shushed him. The rustling disappeared.

“You know, I just tried to pull that same stint at lunch. Do you expect me to fall for it?”

“Will you and your big loud mouth shut up? I really did hear something.”

Isaac could read Liam’s body language, and he could sense his inner wolf’s unease. It all screamed ‘there’s something out there’. Isaac stood on the tips of his toes and cocked his head, trying to survey their surroundings for anything suspicious.

“I can’t hear anything,” Isaac said after a few seconds. “Nothing unexpected, that is. I think there’s a badger somewhere.”

“I- I- I heard something.”

“Something like what?”

“A rustling on the floor, across the grass and the leaves. Something _big_.”

“Okay… are we talking wolf-big? Or bear-big?” Isaac said, immediately trying to remember if they had put all their food in bear-proof containers. Not that they could not fight off a bear, but it’d be painful and he’d rather not have to.

“I’m not sure… I- I- I’m not sure anymore.”

“And you’re sure your wolf is not just hyped about a squirrel or something?”

“No,” Liam stared at Isaac as if he had gone insane, but his friend just shrugged his shoulders. “No, I _heard_ it… I’m very sure I did… Didn’t I?”

_It was just Liam’s imagination[[DB2c]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531884)  
_

_It was_ not _just Liam’s imagination[[DB2d]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531896)  
_


	11. DB2a

Liam looked at Isaac, who had an air of confidence that he had never really seen in anyone but Scott. Liam guessed it must have rubbed on him. He looked down at his book of legends and thought about the coin he had found earlier. His inner wolf sensed his hesitation, and simply gave him a nudge of reassurance, pushing him gently towards Isaac, following either a sense of adventure or a sense of duty towards his pack mate. In any case, Isaac seemed determined to go and Scott would murder him if anything happened to his boyfriend.

“So, shall we?” Isaac asked again.

“Yeah. Come on. I’ve had enough rock watching for a day.”

Isaac beamed at him and gave Liam a bear hug, which the younger beta only pretended to fight against. When he put Liam down, Isaac ruffled his hair and went off up the mountain path, hoping to find the fabled silver towers.

“Never took you for the adventurer type,” Liam said when they had walked a good half hour up the mountain.

“Ah, well. That’s my big secret. I’ve been playing D&D for years just to prepare for such an occasion.”

“Yeah well… Now I can only see you as a crossover between an over-excited puppy and a big nerd.”

“I’m also a big werewolf, shortarse.”

“You see, we were getting along so well. Now I have to go back to hating you.”

Isaac turned around to put an exaggerated pout on his face. Liam rolled his eyes with an extra moan for emphasis, and both laughed.

“Come on, longshanks,” Liam said eventually. “Let’s get going.”

They kept walking up the mountain path, through patches of thick forest of pines and redwoods and other areas with a highland meadow partly covered in snow. They had to cross a small river over a rickety bridge, and they stopped by a fresh water spring to re-fill their bottles.

Isaac and Liam spent their marching hours playing and talking about lacrosse and the pack and any other thing from Isaac’s life in France to the most recent concert Liam had gone to. They also hummed and sang (although they mostly butchered) various of their favourite songs, scaring all the wildlife for miles around.

Whenever they felt that they were getting nowhere close, or when they did not know for certain where to turn at a fork in the road, the high silver towers appeared through the mists. That encouraged them to keep going until the moment when Liam asked to stop for a number one and Isaac checked his watch.

The moment they stopped to think about where they were and what time it was, they realised that they had walked further than they imagined and for longer than they had expected. Thankfully Isaac still had his map with him, but his geological map was not extremely helpful for navigating, and they were dangerously close to the edge of the sheet.

“Erm… Isaac?” he asked, still from the bushes.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve got a question.”

“Whatever it is, I am not going to go to that bush until you pull your trousers up.”

“Shut up. What time is it?”

“It’s… it’s getting late,” Isaac admitted.

“How late is late? Look at the sun; it will be dark soon and we did not pack our torches. They are back in the tent.”

“But look, Liam,” Isaac tried to dismiss his worries. “We’re almost there, look!”

Up in the clouds ahead they could see the towers, now glowing pink and orange as they reflected the setting sun.

“Isaac, it’s getting dark and cold,” Liam said as he walked back to the path.

“We have these,” the taller werewolf said, flashing his golden werewolf eyes. “And you should have wrapped up better.

“We’re in a frigging mountain top, away from our camp.”

“But… The tower is there! We’ve almost made it! What if we can’t find the towers tomorrow?”

“Isaac,” Liam shook his head, twisting his lips, “they have been ‘just there’ for a while now. I… I don’t think we can reach them.”

“Does your book say anything about it?”

“About what?”

“About how to reach the towers.”

“Not as such,” Liam sounded deflated. “But isn’t it like a trope of mystic cloud realms? That they are always almost within reach but never actually there?”

“We could ask Lydia.”

“I think that we lost reception a few miles back.”

“So what then, Liam,” Isaac asked. He was not annoyed – he really wanted to know Liam’s opinion. “What should we do? Do we keep going for a bit longer? Or do we give up and return to camp?”

_Give up on the tower and head back[[DB3a]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531908)  
_

_Just go a little further[[DB3b]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531920)  
_


	12. DB2b

“You’re saying we go chasing a mystic cloud kingdom of wizards up in the clouds?” Liam was not very convinced.

“You were the one who wanted to educate me about its existence!”

“Yeah, well… There’s the theory and there’s the practice…” Liam gave a feeble excuse, waving his hands around, trying to convey more meaning, but failing miserably.

“What was all that about the coin then? Why did you get so upset about it?”

“I wasn’t upset,” Liam sulked.

“Were you not?” Isaac gave him a side smile. “Why were you so keen about it then? You’re not chickening out, are you?”

_Go and find the tower[[DB2a]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531863)  
_

_Stay there[[DB3c]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531932)  
_


	13. DB2c

Liam focused all of his senses, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths. He scanned his surroundings and asked his inner wolf to focus their memories. Now that he was focusing, he was less certain about what he had heard and smelled. Or, rather, what he thought he had heard and smelled.

“I must have imagined it.”

“That’s ok,” Isaac said reassuringly. “There are lots of noises and smells and things to see out here. Man, my inner wolf was all over the place at first!”

“Must be…” Liam replied, still trying to convince himself.

“Come on, let’s keep on walking.”

Isaac took them to the ridge he wanted to study, and he drew some sketches and took some photographs before deciding that he had enough and that they could walk back home. They took a different path, and they headed towards their camp through the lower slopes of the ridge, rather than walking back along the path they had trodden first.

Some twenty minutes later, Isaac stopped abruptly.

“Oh, wait, look!”

“What?” Liam looked, expecting some sort of danger.

“That’s the same formation I was studying first but, like, from below!”

“Jesus, you scared me, Isaac!”

“Sorry.”

“So we’re stopping here for you to do your shit?”

“If you don’t mind?”

Liam huffed, but he looked at Isaac and nodded.

“Ok, you do your thing,” Liam managed a small smile.

“Thanks, man,” the other beta grinned. “If you’re going to be bored, why don’t you go down to the river’s edge and fish us some dinner?”

“You want me to what?” Liam replied in disbelief.

“You’ve never fished or what?”

“Well, that’s irrelevant. We don’t have rods or hooks or anything!”

“Be imaginative, Liam,” Isaac smirked. “Do it bear style. Wait for a fish and claw it out of the water.”

“I’m a werewolf. Not a were-bear.”

“Same thing,” Isaac quickly dismissed Liam’s moaning. “It’s all in the attitude and your supernatural ability.”

“You are not joking, are you?” Liam was grinning now.

“Never. If fish are too slippery for you, try crayfish. Just throw these bits of ham and the little fuckers will all jump on it.”

“How do you know about all of this?”

“A combination of tv wildlife documentaries and Bear Grylls. Scott loves his show, so I’ve watched all of it.”

“So this is all theory,” Liam quizzed, raising an eyebrow.

“We’ll never know if it works if you don’t try!”

Liam rolled his eyes as Isaac gave him a little hand wave.

The younger beta walked downslope to the river, which was running clean, cold and fast. He looked for two stones on which he could position himself. He took off his coat, leaving it on the bank and, rolling up the sleeves of his jumper, waited for a fish to come within reach of his claws.

It was then that Liam sensed the same thing again: the rustling of something big and heavy, the musky and dirty scent of an animal he could not identify.

_Just focus on the fishing[[DB3d]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531947)  
_

_Something’s fishy…[[DB2d]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531872)  
_


	14. DB2d

“You should know,” Isaac chuckled. “You’re the one who thinks he heard something.”

“Ok, Isaac,” Liam focused—he was certain now about what he had heard. “I _have_ heard something. Please believe me.”

The look on Liam’s face was serious enough for Isaac to do as he was told, however, no matter how much he focused, he could not hear a thing.

“Liam, I’m not—“

“Shush!” Liam lowered his body position and looked intensely at a corner of the forest. “Come this way.”

Liam dashed off without checking if Isaac was following. The older beta rolled his eyes before racing up behind Liam. Further up ahead, Liam heard the same noise again, but this time it was getting further and further away from where they had started. Eventually, Liam stopped trying to chase the source of the noise because he stumbled across a path.

“This is a path,” Liam said in a low voice.

“This is not a park path. This is an animal trail,” Isaac added, pointing at the narrow trail of gently flattened grass, trodden snow, and broken twigs that snaked across the bushes.

Liam sniffed and caught a whiff of something new.

“And yes: before you say anything,”—Isaac clarified—“I can smell something too.”

The scent was difficult to describe, but it was a musky animal, with a strong scent of wet fur and mud. Isaac looked along the path and saw that it went up from the river towards the mountain crests. Meanwhile, Liam looked through the bushes and found hairs trapped on some branches. The hairs belonged to the creature that had passed through that path last, if he were to trust his smell, and the thick brown hairs (which were almost like bristles) suggested that it was something big.

“Come on, let’s go find this.”

“Whoa, whoa, easy there, Liam!” Isaac warned with raised hands and arched eyebrows. “Are we now running after weird and unknown animals?”

Liam cocked his head.

“Where’s your sense of adventure?”

“I left it behind, you know? Next to the rocks I am meant to be studying. Which is like the reason why we are here,” Isaac replied, not holding back on the sass.

“Oh, come on! What if it’s Bigfoot?”

“What if it is a random forest feral shapeshifter who likes to have werewolves for dinner?”

“Don’t be a wuss,” Liam taunted.

“Oh, this is how we’re going to play this, then? Fine, fine... I’ll remember you said that, shortarse,” Isaac glared at Liam, but his friend simply dared him with a smirk. Isaac gave up. “Alright. Where to?”

_Follow the scent downhill[[DB3e]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531959)  
_

_Follow the scent uphill[[DB3f]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531971)  
_


	15. DB3a

Liam stood there, considering their options, pondering them carefully. They had found a silver coin with the image of the towers. They had _seen_ the towers glowing up in the clouds, standing defiantly. They had appeared in front of them whenever they did not know which way to follow or whenever their resolution to find them faltered. It _seemed_ as if the towers were guiding them somewhere. But they had been walking there for hours, and yet had not really got any closer to reaching the base – which was meant to be in the clouds anyways. _Where do clouds start? Where does mist turn into cloud? How do we jump on a cloud?_

“Isaac… It’s too cold and too dark,” Liam sounded defeated. “The tower is just a myth—“

“So are werewolves,” Isaac quickly interrupted.

“Isaac… Those towers—whatever they are—they may be another type of supernatural thing? Not part of our werewolf and shapeshifter world?”

“That does not make sense.”

“And you’re being pig-headed! A cloudy kingdom with magic towers? Really?”

“I came across an evil alien-worshiping cult. I’m happy to believe pretty much anything now.”

“But haven’t you noticed? No matter how much we walk or how close we get, the towers always _seem_ to be the exact same distance away!”

“You’re the one who tried to convince me!” Isaac said. “With your coin and your legends from the book! I’m sorry if I thought this was exciting.”

“It was exciting!” Liam conceded. “But don’t you think that a mystic kingdom can be simply accessed by walking up to a cloud and then… dunno. Are you going to knock on a cloud?”

“Are you giving up because you’re cold, Liam?” Isaac added, cocking his head.

“No! Yes? Maybe. It _is_ very cold. It is getting dark. And we are not any closer than we were when we started chasing those fucking towers earlier today! Can’t you see, Isaac?”

Liam was angry, but not at Isaac – he was angry at himself for having convinced them into believing the tower kingdom was there. He was angry at the towers for being always just out of reach. He balled his fists and closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. He then was surprised to feel Isaac putting his gloved hands on his shoulders.

“Ok, listen, Liam,” Isaac looked down at him with concern, but his tone was supportive. “I’m sorry if I got over excited about these towers. But you really convinced me that there is a mystic mountain kingdom up there. Or something.”

Liam’s anger slowly vanished. He looked down at his booted feet and then looked around. They had gone up a mountain path that had led them to an alpine meadow. The high pine trees were several feet below them. Up ahead the rocky tops were covered in clouds and, to the west, the setting sun was tinting the sky orange, and it soon would turn pink and then purple.

“Shall we go back to camp?”

Isaac thought carefully, and in the end realised that he had to agree with Liam. It was not safe to be out in the mountains in the dark – even for a pair of werewolves.

“Come on. Let’s go down.”

“I’m sorry, Isaac,” Liam apologised as they went down the path.

“Don’t be. No need. But it’s your turn to cook dinner tonight.”

Liam rolled his eyes, making Isaac chuckle.

When they had walked a quarter of a mile or so, before they reached the treeline, they stopped. The trees in front of them were shining in many colours, as if lights were being projected on them. When they turned slowly around to see where those colours came from, they saw the silver tower firmly set on the floor.

The two werewolves froze on the spot, not believing what they were seeing: a tall tower standing just beyond where they had turned around not fifteen minutes before. The base of the tower was surrounded by a thick mist, but they could see that it had a massive iron gate, decorated with gold spirals. The gate was framed by a stone arch and, high above, balconies and other platforms projected outwards, suspended many feet above the ground.

It looked solid. It looked _real_. It was not a mirage in the distance – it was there! The low and continuous hum of a massive trumpet rumbled from the top of the mystic building.

“Liam?” Isaac asked, his mouth gaping and his eyes fixed on the tower. “You too are seeing that?”

“You mean that tower?”

“Yeah… _that_ tower.”

“I think I am.”

“Why is that tower there?”

“I don’t know,” Liam replied, also staring at the tower.

“How did it get there?”

“I don’t know.”

“What does your book say now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Liam…” Isaac now whispered. “What do we _do_?”

_Go back to the tower[[DB4a]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532235)_

_Run![[DB4b]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532256)_


	16. DB3b

Liam stood there, considering their options, pondering them carefully. They had found a silver coin with the image of the towers. They had _seen_ the towers glowing up in the clouds, standing defiantly. The tower had appeared in front of them whenever they did not know which way to follow or whenever their resolution to find them faltered. But they had not really got any closer to reaching the base – which was meant to be in the clouds anyways. _Where do clouds start? Where does mist turn into cloud? How do we jump on a cloud?_

There was only one way of finding out.

“Let’s keep going.”

“Yeah, get in!” Isaac failed to supress his excitement. He did a silly victory dance until Liam walked ahead, rolling his eyes. Isaac ran after him, shouting for him to stop and wait.

Both werewolves kept walking through the mountain path, across the alpine meadows and the protruding boulders. Up there, the patches of snow were more abundant, and it was certainly much colder. The gleaming tower was still there guiding their steps through the mountain, even when they had to go off-trail.

As the sun set in the west, and the sky turned from orange to purple, the wind picked up and the air got colder. Isaac wrapped himself tighter in his coat and put his mittens on. Liam pulled the hood over his beanie. The tower kept guiding them, shining brighter now than it had before, encouraging them to keep going.

But then it got too dark – even for their enhanced werewolf senses, Isaac stopped to pull a torch to light their way.

“Isaac, please, wait!”

“What? I can’t find the torch.”

“That’s what I mean. Isn’t it too dark? And too cold?”

“Er…” Isaac stopped rummaging through his bag and looked around, as if only he had just realised that. “Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh’.”

“Do you think this is where we turn around?”

“I think it’s all part of the ‘let’s try not getting lost in the mountains’ idea.”

Isaac stopped as he pulled his scarf tighter. It _was_ biting cold, and they were in the middle of nowhere. And yet, the big bright tower drew them to it, like a mystic rural lighthouse.

“Liam,” Isaac licked his lips as he looked up to the tower. “That tower of the wizard of Oz is _just_ there.”

The taller werewolf pointed behind a few rocks. The mountain summit was _there_ , and it seemed within reach. There, glowing through the mists that covered the snowy peak, the base of the tower was clearly visible.

“Aren’t you a tiny bit curious about that mystic cloud kingdom _you_ distinctively were lecturing me about?”

Liam opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He shut it back and stopped to think. Curiosity was burning inside him. He really wanted to go and find that tower. And yet, he could hear a voice inside him saying that maybe it was not a good idea. He was only slightly worried that the voice sounded exactly like Mason telling him off. Liam had to shake his head to make Mason’s disappointed and condescending tone stop.

“What would Scott do?” Liam asked, knowing it was a low blow.

Isaac scrunched his face. He loved his boyfriend dearly, but he could be a spoilsport at times.

“That was below the belt, Liam. I thought we were friends,” he added with a pout.

“Do you want to continue and find that tower?”

Isaac huffed.

“We both want to go to that tower, but I can see why we may want to turn around and head back to camp…”

Liam looked up to the tower, and then down to the valley. He bit his lip before looking up at Isaac.

_Keep going further[[DB4c]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532268)_

_Turn around and head back to camp[[DB4d]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532277)_


	17. DB3c

Liam looked intently at the clouds, but he saw nothing. No towers, no nothing. It must have been a mirage. It had to have been a mirage. He should not have got so excited about his book of myths.

If he was completely honest, Liam had to admit that he felt disappointed that he had not had the courage to jump to go on an adventure as quickly as Isaac had been. But Liam did not want to risk going out on a wild goose chase out there in the mountains. Beacon Hills was dangerous enough, and they were in the middle of nowhere in the Rockies. God only knew what could have happened.

And yet… Liam kind of wished he knew what could have been.

Isaac looked at Liam. He could not hide the disappointment from his face. He had been the sceptic, and then a fucking silver tower had appeared in a cloud? It was _there_! He saw it. They both had.

But Isaac could not drag Liam up the mountain, especially if he did not want to go. And he knew better than going on his own on a quest up a mountain. So he sighed in resignation and, after finishing his lunch, went back to his rock formations and his map.

Later that afternoon, Isaac decided that he wanted to have a look from a different perspective, so they hiked down a trail that took them to the base of a rock, which Liam thought was quite unamusing, but that Isaac somehow found fascinating. From their new perspective they saw a large storm gathering at the mountain top where they had seen (or thought they had seen, they were not sure anymore) the silver towers. Liam and Isaac looked at each other with relief, knowing that they could have been trapped in that unexpected storm.

When Isaac was satisfied with the day’s work, he pulled out two chocolate bars from his bag and gave one to Liam. They ate it as they walked back to their base camp, and got ready for another starry evening and a campfire dinner.

_That was a close call[[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)_


	18. DB3d

Liam went back to his fishing, focusing on a big fat trout that had been swimming around his rock for the last three minutes.

“You’re _so_ gonna end up in my belly…” Liam threatened the fish as he smirked.

When it got close enough, Liam quickly lashed forward with its clawed hand and successfully threw the fish on the bank.

“Yesss—oh holy crap!”

Liam had been so focused on his fishing and so dismissive of the strange scents that he did not notice that on the bank, only a few yards ahead of him, there was a really big, furry and brown bear. The bear was staring at Liam carefully, but not moving at all. Liam froze as he stared back into the bear’s eyes.

“Isaac!” Liam hissed, still not moving. “Isaac! Quickly, come. But silently!”

“What’s wrong?” he heard Isaac talking to him in the distance.

“Nothing’s wrong, but it’s like so _so_ super incredible.”

“Oh god, you’re having a stroke. You’re hallucinating. I’m coming.”

“Just be quiet and bring your camera!”

“What’s going on?” Isaac huffed, slightly annoyed.

“ _Please_! Hurry up.”

Isaac did his best to come quickly and quietly with his camera at the ready, prepared to give Liam a piece of his mind.

“Ok, what’s going on?” Isaac asked in hushed tones at Liam. But Liam did not reply. He simply pointed in front of him with a smile from ear to ear. When Isaac looked, he saw not only a big brown fluffy bear, but also three tiny and adorable bear cubs. “Ohmygod,” Isaac managed to say.

“I know!” Liam added, all his attention devoted to the bear family.

“That’s so cool.”

“They’re so cute.”

Isaac walked until he was close to Liam, keeping a safe distance from the bear and her cubs. When they were both together, Isaac kneeled to take some pictures. Big mama bear kept eyeing Liam and Isaac with caution and curiosity, but the werewolves did not move an inch closer, and the bear seemed happy with that.

There must also have been some sort of primeval recognition, because when the big bear looked into their eyes, it was as if she had been reading and judging their souls, which made their werewolf irises shine involuntarily. At one point as the cubs splashed in the river and munched on frogs and other unfortunate smaller animals, the she-bear sat down and growled a low and somehow not threatening roar at the two werewolves. The rumble of the bear forced them to shift, and their inner wolves howled in unison, acknowledging the power of the bear. Satisfied with whatever that had been, mama bear gathered her cubs and turned around, leading them into the forest until they were out of sight.

“…” Liam failed to speak, but his face beamed.

“I know! What… what was that? Who was that bear?” Isaac said, smiling and feeling an unexpected warm calm inside him.

“I- I- I don’t know?” Liam stuttered.

“Did you feel that thing when she looked at us?”

“You mean the, like, whoosh and warmth, and the …” Liam gesticulated what his words failed to communicate. He pointed at his eyes, and around his face; and then put both hands on his chest, and smiled. Isaac nodded with the same silly grin.

Isaac sat down on the bank, and Liam did the same. They spent a good five minutes trying to process their meeting with the mystic bear of the lake, before feeling a cold gust of wind.

“Maybe we should get going,” Isaac said and Liam agreed.

They gathered their stuff (including the fish that Liam had caught) and walked back to their camp in silence, both werewolves still marvelling at their encounter.

Once in camp, Liam pulled out his book while Isaac prepared the fire. He came across various mentions of spirits of the forest, but none of them were specifically described as a bear spirit.

“However, it says here that bears are symbols of wisdom and strength, and are often associated with healing and medicine,” Liam read aloud. “It also says that bear spirits punish disrespectful or improper behaviour.”

“So Big Mama Bear there has certified we are the good guys?”

“I guess so?” Liam shrugged his shoulders and put his book away.

“Huh… That’s cool,” Isaac muttered as he threw the fish on the pan. “Scott will be proud of us.”

“Do you think we have been like… marked by a bear spirit?”

“I dunno… you’re the local legend expert.”

Liam nodded, but did not reply. They said little else that evening, both busy trying to process their magical encounter with the bear who knew they were werewolves.

_That was an unforgettable experience![[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)  
_


	19. DB3e

“Let’s go down this way,” Liam suggested. “At least if we go down towards the lake we’ll be getting closer to camp.”

Isaac agreed and followed Liam down the animal path towards the water. The scent of whatever animal it was they were following got stronger as they approached the banks, and through the forest and the bush they could spot hairs trapped on the branches. Encouraged by this, Liam picked up the pace.

They soon reached the water’s edge, where the scent disappeared.

“Oh, brilliant,” Isaac said, all sarcasm. “Funny we did not see this coming. An animal that stinks of wet coming out of the water so we sadly lose its trail.”

Liam glared at his friend, but Isaac simply replied with an ironic smile.

“Maybe we could walk along the river until we catch another whiff of it. We may find it like that.”

“Yeah, we could also go across the river…”

“We could?”

“Wait, no! I didn’t mean it like _that_!” Isaac suddenly regretted his words.

“Come on, Isaac,” Liam was grinning out of pure excitement. “This is like a real mountain adventure! Wolves tracking down!”

“Had I known you’d go all ‘the call of the wild’ out here, I would have invited someone else to camp.”

“Yeah, yeah. Tough. Come on, Isaac! We’re close!”

Isaac gritted his teeth. Deep inside he was really enjoying their afternoon adventure, but he would not let Liam see it.

“What do you suggest we do then?”

_Follow the scent uphill[[DB3f]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531971)_

_Cross the river[[DB4e]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532292)_

_Walk along the river[[DB4f]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532304)_


	20. DB3f

“We better go up hill,” Liam suggested. Isaac simply rolled his eyes, but did not complain – he was up for some adventure after an entire morning of looking at rocks.

They continued through the sinuous path that snaked along the forest, taking them a long way away from where they started. Isaac began to worry they might end up getting lost, but they had not come across any other paths, so the way back should be pretty straight forward. Or, at least, that’s what he hoped.

Eventually, they reached some boggy terrain, where the acrid smell of rotting vegetation attacked their sensitive werewolf noses. Thankfully, the path they were following meandered around the wettest parts, and almost always led them across on solid ground. That is, of course, excepting that one time when Liam stepped on a mud puddle and sank down to his ankle. Isaac did his best to contain his laughter and pull him out without losing the boot to mud-suction.

“What if it’s Bigfoot?” Isaac asked casually once they left the bog behind. “Does your book say anything about it?”

“Well yeah. It says nothing new, really,” Liam replied, slightly disappointed, as if his book of myths and legends had let him down. “But it did say that Bigfoot and the Yeti are two types of the same species.”

“Like black bears and grizzly bears?”

“Almost.”

“And are we sure we’re not following a bear?”

“What is it with you and bears? I’ve had enough of you and your bear worries!” Liam said and Isaac chuckled. “God! Mr Bear Expert, who keeps our bacon in a bear-proof container that _nobody_ can open!”

“I _told_ you, you had to squeeze the top before you turn the—“

“Yeah, yeah… Just have a little faith in my book.”

“Like faith in your mysterious silver tower coin?”

“You lost that one! Now we shall never know if they exist,” Liam concluded in good humour, marching ahead. Isaac simply rolled his eyes.

After a while of leaving the swamp behind, the forest became suddenly much darker and denser. Little sunlight came through the thick canopy, and the trees grew so closely together that they gave the impression of loosely planked walls. The air hardly circulated and felt stale. The fumes of the bog formed a thick and unnerving low mist that crawled around their feet.

“Because this is not freaky at all,” Liam said, slowing down to look more carefully at the trees that circled them.

“Yes. It is,” Isaac replied, slightly anxious. “Can we just, like, leave this forest now?”

“The trees are not going to attack us,” Liam dismissed Isaac’s tone. “This is not _The Lord of the Rings_.”

“You don’t _know_ that and that’s not what I’m worried about,” Isaac snapped.

It was not like him to be this nervous, Liam thought. Not outdoors.

“Are you ok, Isaac?” the younger beta stopped and turned around to face Isaac. His friend was twitchy and jumpy.

“Can we not stop right here? It’s all feeling a bit… a bit too tight in here.”

The penny dropped and Liam suddenly saw the forest around them through a different lens: oppressive, enclosed, _claustrophobic_.

“Okay, okay. Look at me, Isaac, focus on me.” Isaac took a deep breath before looking down at Liam, who was giving him his warmest and most confident smile. “We are going to continue down this path to the other side, ok? And then we’ll be outside and with the sky above us.”

It seemed that Isaac only needed to hear that, and he let Liam take him to the end of the thick and dark forest. The path eventually led them out of the woods and onto an area with more bushes than trees. There was more open space around them, and a clear sky above. Isaac seemed visibly calmer, and he thanked Liam for helping him out.

Out in the open, the scent of the creature was clearer, and Liam pulled from Isaac’s sleeve encouragingly, leading him down the path in front of them. That was, of course, until they came to a fork. The scent was almost imperceptible, in that area, and they could not guess which way the creature had gone. Isaac’s map was not helpful either, so it was up to them to decide where to go next.

_Take the path on the left[[DB4g]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532328)_

_Take the path on the right[[DB4h]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532343)  
_


	21. DB4a

The two betas looked at each other and nodded at the same time. With a daring smile, Isaac darted towards the tower, closely followed by Liam.

They soon reached the point where they had decided to turn around, and the kept running further. When they reached the mist they had to slow down, and after a few yards the mist had turned into a thick fog. They could not see much far ahead. Instinctively, they kept within touching distance, and Isaac found himself unconsciously holding securely to Liam’s sleeve.

Up ahead they still sensed the humming that came from the tower, and they could see the multi-coloured lights that pierced the mist and diffracted into a thousand rainbows. The path became steeper and they lost their sense of distance and perception. _Surely_ they had only walked a few yards?

None voiced their concerns. Both were suddenly in full alert. While something inside them (a sense of adventure, scientific curiosity, or something else entirely) dragged them towards the tower, their inner wolves were giving them all kind of signals. Something was wrong with the mist, the tower, and their surroundings, but somehow they could not stop themselves from inching closer and closer. That is, until Liam felt the floor give way underfoot.

“Aaaah!”

“Liam!”

Isaac grabbed his coat tightly and managed to push him back towards him. They both landed on their bums, panting in fear, with Isaac wrapping Liam tightly in his arms.

“I think this was a bad idea.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Isaac said as they stood up, eyes flashing in golden yellow. “The benefits of hindsight and all that.”

“Isaac,” Liam whispered as his claws grew. “I think there is something out there in the mist.”

“You mean other than a chasm into oblivion? Yeah… I’ve noticed it too.”

As they inched away from the cliff, the hum and the light of the tower faded away. As the fog thinned, the two werewolves could see three shapes coming into view. Three very large shapes walking towards them.

_Uh-oh…[[DB5a]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532367)_


	22. DB4b

“Liam, what do we do, because I don’t like this one bit,” Isaac repeated – he had clearly made up his mind about the tower. “Do you know about the sirens?”

“What sirens?”

“Doesn’t matter – shall we go, please?”

Liam swallowed and looked at Isaac, whose face was half-illuminated by the glistening of the Silver Tower. But when he blinked, the colours were gone. Both werewolves turned to their side slowly and where the tower had been just a second ago there was nothing but rocks, bushes, snow, and shadows.

“Enough of that,” Isaac ordered this time. “We run now.”

Liam nodded silently, and both werewolves jumped up and ran down the hill towards the tree line, towards their camp, towards relative safety away from that fucking disappearing tower.

“What were you talking about sirens?” Liam asked when they were finally on a path they recognised.

“You know, the story of Ulysses and the Trojan Horse?” Isaac said, not slowing down. “When he goes back home after the Trojan War he goes through these rocks where the sirens lived. And they lured ships to them with their sexy singing and then they ate them.”

“Ate who?”

“The sailors, you thicko.”

“What has that got to do with anything?”

“What if that tower was luring us into something evil and hungry?”

“I guess we’ll never know.”

“Damn right we won’t!”

After that, Liam asked them to stop to catch their breath. It was pitch black, so Isaac looked in his rucksack and pulled out a torch. After he found it, and when Liam was ready, they were again on their way down the path.

“Do you think it was all a mirage?” Liam asked after a couple of minutes.

“Like in the desert?”

“Or something more supernatural. Like with those sirens you were talking about.”

Isaac did not answer, as he thought carefully about his answer.

“I mean… it’s an option, isn’t it? And—wait a minute.”

Isaac stopped and Liam was suddenly on full alert. He saw Isaac pulling out one of his gloves and kneeling down.

“What is it?” Liam whispered.

Isaac picked up something from the ground, but he would not show it to Liam.

“What?!” Liam insisted when he heard Isaac laughing hysterically.

“So, that coin you saw,” Isaac said as he stood up, but still giving his back to Liam.

“Yeah?”

“You didn’t look at it carefully, did you?”

“Why?”

And then Isaac turned around. He held the torch with one hand, while in the other he had a clot of frozen mud that had evidently been crumbled off the back of the same silver coin that Liam had found that afternoon.

“Is this your coin, Liam?”

“Yes!! How did you—“

“It has your silver towers on one side alright,” Isaac interrupted with a big smug smile. “But on the other it reads ‘ONE TOKEN – MEDIAEVAL FAIRE OF BROOKS, ALBERTA – 2003’.”

“No it doesn’t,” Liam snatched the coin off Isaac’s hand, but Isaac did not object.

Liam checked the coin and read it over and over again.

“Can we go back now? It is cold…” Isaac asked.

“But what about the tower? The light? The… we did… we saw it?”

“Did we really?” was Isaac’s only reply.

“Isaac, you can’t lie to me. And you don’t believe that we didn’t see them.”

“Don’t blind me with your double negatives. Triple!”

“Isaac!”

Isaac huffed and looked down. He slowly looked up to look at Liam, who was only hoping for some understanding. The older beta sighed and he nodded slowly.

“We _might_ have seen something,” Isaac waved his hands vaguely. “But whatever it was, it was not solid. I won’t say it was not real… I’ve seen enough ‘unreal’ shit. I just don’t know what it is we saw…”

Liam walked closer to Isaac and put his mitten-clad hand on his shoulder.

“I don’t know either. But whatever it was, I think it was a good call to leg it.”

“Don’t doubt that for a second!” Isaac managed to smile.

“It’s like rule number one,” Liam said as he pulled Isaac and they continued walking down to their camp. “Never walk into a haunted house.”

“Or never ask ‘is anybody there?’.”

They kept on talking about absurd situations in horror films that could have been easily avoided as they walked down to the valley, feeling much better and relieved, unaware that far behind them, hidden behind a large rock, various pairs of yellow avian eyes stared with frustration at them at the lost opportunity.

_It’s time to call it a day[[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)  
_


	23. DB4c

“Let’s find it,” Liam decided. “But if we die here tonight, I’ll make sure Lydia tells Scott it was all your fault.”

“Oh, thank you, shortarse,” Isaac snarled back. “I knew you’d have my back even in the afterlife.”

He walked ahead, heading towards the tower, grabbing the strips of his backpack tightly.

They walked for half an hour until they reached the snowline. The sky was _really_ dark now, and the mystic coloured light that glowed from the tower gave the frost-covered ground an eerie look. But those lights gave enough glow so that they were not in complete darkness. The blue, green and purple lights coming from the summit hit the snowflakes, and bounced back in a billion different directions as they diffracted through the ice crystals. Isaac had never seen anything like that, and could only compare it to the northern lights he had seen in documentaries.

“Isaac!”

Isaac, who had been staring at the multi-coloured lights, turned around.

“What?”

“You almost walked into that ravine down there!” Liam walked briskly to him and pulled him from his hood. “You very nearly died there!”

“What are you going on about? I was just walking towards the tower?”

“What? No!” Liam shouted, keeping Isaac close to him and away from the cliff. “The tower is there!” he turned around and pointed in a different direction.

“Er….” Isaac stared at the empty terrain where Liam was pointing.

“Ok. Hang on,” Liam stopped. The situation was getting beyond ridiculous. “Where are those towers? Shouldn’t we have reached them already?”

Isaac did not reply. He just looked up to the snow-covered peak. He could have sworn he was following the path to the tower. He then looked at Liam and the direction he had been pointing to.

“Don’t move,” Isaac said, looking at the snow behind them.

“What are you—“ Liam began to argue, but Isaac cut him short.

“Please, Liam,” Isaac insisted, looking beyond Liam steadily. “Do not move. _Trust_ me.”

Liam did as he was told and froze. He saw Isaac looking down at the snow around them, retracing the steps they had taken, following the prints they had left. From his point of view, Liam noticed that he was walking around in wide circles.

“Isaac,” he said in a whisper, his eyes now looking at the snow. “Have you noticed?”

“Yeah,” Isaac replied slowly, still looking at their footprints which went in circles when they could have sworn they had been walking in straight lines. “I am noticing… But are we missing something?”

“Something like what?” Liam did not understand.

“I don’t know. Maybe we need a password, or a magic word or…” Isaac bit his tongue as he tried to think of a way out of their predicament. They were by the towers, but the towers were always beyond reach? It felt as something was missing. Something the book was not telling them.

“Isaac, can’t you see this is all a mirage?” Liam gave up, opting for the most logical explanation.

“We are knee-deep in snow that glows in technicolour,” he deadpanned. “It’s _not_ a mirage.”

“Well, whatever this is, it’s some bat-shit crazy type of magic. Maybe they don’t want werewolves to find their tower.”

“Does your book say something about it?” Isaac suddenly asked, arching an eyebrow, as if the thought had just come to his mind.

“You want me to check my book _here_? _Now_?”

“Well, I don’t think I’ll be climbing up this mountain tomorrow. I doubt this will be here tomorrow…”

Liam huffed and rolled his eyes. Isaac kept looking at Liam, unmoved.

“You’re for real?”

“Please?” Isaac put his saddest puppy-dog eyes and pouted his lip.

Liam kneeled down, put some snow in his hand, compressed it into a ball, and threw it at Isaac before fishing his book out of his backpack.

“Okay… so,” Liam coughed. “The Silver Towers, blah blah blah… the mountain top… yada yada… The high wizards of the Kingdom of Leng… Well. I don’t know. It hasn’t got anything explicit about passwords. This is just a book from a gift shop, not an actual magic tome.”

“Give me that,” Isaac said as he reached for the book.

“No! Hands off – this is my book.”

“Oh, please, come on,” the beta growled.

“Isaac!”

They struggled briefly until Liam positioned himself in such a way that he could push him back. When he looked around to look at Isaac, Liam noticed that his friend had shifted.

“Whoa, Isaac, what’s wrong?”

Isaac shook his head and came back to his senses.

“Huh… Why am I on the snow?” the tall beta said, not concealing his scared tone.

“Don’t you remember?”

“Remember what? You just pulled me back from that cliff… right?”

“No…”

Isaac slowly stood up and brushed the snow off his bum.

“Liam?”

“I think this is when we turn around and leg it.”

“Yeah. I thought so.”

Both werewolves looked for their path back down to the valley, when a strong gust of wind knocked them forward. A low rumble echoed behind them. Isaac and Liam looked at each other, before turning around and looking over their shoulders, where they saw the Tower.

Wide and solid, rising up into the sky beyond the clouds, the Silver Tower was suddenly there. The mists had vanished, and a single pure beam of white brightness coming from the very top had substituted the multi-coloured lights. A loud and low blast came from the very top, and Liam and Isaac had to cover their ears, burying their faces in the snow. To protect their sensitive supernatural hearing.

When it stopped, the massive silver-inlaid gates opened with a low groan. Isaac and Liam got on their knees and saw a deep red light coming from inside the tower. Liam swallowed hard, and looked at Isaac.

“Well, we found it.”

_Approach the tower[[DB5b]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532394)_

_Run away[[DB5c]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532406)_


	24. DB4d

“It’s way too dark,” Liam said.

“I have a torch.”

“It’s getting too cold,” he insisted.

“We can wrap up more.”

“Isaac…” Liam begged.

Isaac’s internal debate showed clearly on his face. There was a mystic Silver Tower just _there_ , but it was also a weirdly disappearing mystic tower. They were also in a cold, dark, snowy mountain, far from their camp. He did not notice, but the more he doubted about the tower, the less bright it glowed, until it vanished.

“I think we should turn around,” he finally conceded. “It was only a story in your book.”

“I know,” Liam agreed as they retraced their steps heading back to camp. “But it felt so real!”

“There are such things as mirages…”

“What about the coin?” Liam suddenly remembered.

“Well… Some people get very bored, and if they know about the myth, they could even be making those coins and littering the forest with them to keep the myth alive.”

“And that’s your sensible explanation?” Liam looked at Isaac in disbelief.

“It’s either that or your mystic wizards drop their small change through the clouds.”

They continued their descent in silence, both werewolves too busy trying to digest what they had seen (or thought they had seen) that day. By the time they reached their base, they were tired, cold and hungry.

“At least you got all what you needed for your dissertation, right?” Liam asked hopefully, dropping his backpack unceremoniously on the ground while Isaac started the fire.

“Yeah, I suppose it’s true. I could do with some more data collection, but I have plenty.”

They cooked their dinner, not saying much, staring at the impossibly blue sky, letting the fire warm their backs. From time to time Isaac would point out at a star or a constellation he remembered

_That was an exciting day[[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)_


	25. DB4e

“Can we really go across?” Liam wondered.

“I didn’t mean that seriously.”

“But we _could_.”

“You’re insane.”

“Isaac, it’s not that wide, and certainly not that deep.”

“No, it’s not, dumbass, but it’s surely freezing, and we’ll be wet. Which means that the best way to go across is stripping down to our underwear and then cross.”

“What on Earth are you talking about?” Liam asked in shock.

“You’ve never seen Bear Grylls?”

“Okay, _now_ you’re joking.”

“No! He says that you can’t cross a river with your clothes on, because you’ll freeze. Ask Scott.”

“We’re not in Alaska or Greenland or wherever he was.”

“There’s still snow around.”

“You just want to see me in my underpants. I’m telling Scott.”

“Believe me,” Isaac crossed his arms and looked at Liam uninterested. “I’ve seen you already, and I’m perfectly happy with Scott, thank you very much.”

Liam blew a raspberry and Isaac stuck his tongue out in reply. Their mature verbal exchange was interrupted by what was most definitely a growl from beyond the river. Both werewolves froze and slowly turned their heads. Across the bank a shadowy figure stood looking at them and, in the blink of an eye, it was gone.

“I’m not taking my trousers off,” Liam said as he put all the contents of his pockets in his backpack. “Come on! It’s going to get away!”

With their bags tight against their shoulders, the two werewolves quickly jumped into the river, trying to ford it where they could see the bottom. After two steps they were knee-deep in the cold river. Isaac cursed at his wet boots, and hoped that if they placed them by the fire they could dry by the morning. He was brought back from his thoughts by Liam yelping. The other werewolf was now literally balls-deep in the river, and his face clearly showed that it was colder than he had expected.

“Are you happy now that we decided to cross the river?” Isaac smirked. He had to bite his tongue hard before he said something on the lines of ‘I told you so’. “Have you had enough adventure and can we go back now?”

_Finish crossing[[DB5d]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532412)_

_Go back to camp[[DB5g]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532472)_


	26. DB4f

“Let’s not cross a river, please?” Isaac asked. “If you insist in tracking this creature which, by the way, we don’t know if it’s evil yet, I’d rather do it with my feet dry.”

“Why would you say it’s an evil creature? We don’t know that. That’s prejudice.”

“Alright, lord high and mighty,” Isaac chuckled. “Let’s walk down this bank before I regret it and drag you back to camp by your collar.”

Isaac and Liam walked along the bank, trying to see if they could get a glimpse of this elusive creature or else sniff its characteristic muddy and musky scent again. After walking along the bank for fifteen minutes it was clear that they were unlucky on both accounts.

“We’ve lost it,” Isaac declared as he pulled a chocolate bar from his coat’s pocket. “Whatever it was, it’s gone across the river and hasn’t come back.”

Liam was frowning in disappointment. He really thought he could track that creature down, but it had sneaked away from them with one of the oldest tricks in the book. He sat down on a rock and pouted until Isaac shared some of his chocolate with him.

“Look at it from this perspective,” Isaac said as he looked over at the widening river, still munching on his chocolate. “It could have been worse. Imagine we had come across a swamp monster rather than whatever forest friend you were hoping to find.”

The younger beta said nothing. He simply pulled out his water bottle and had a long gulp. When he put it back in his bag, he saw Isaac standing very still, and with an enigmatic smile on his face.

“What—“

“Shhh…” Isaac cautioned in a low voice. “I think I have found one of your forest friends…”

Liam saw Isaac kneeling down with a big grin as he tried to get something out of his pocket. Liam slowly turned around and finally saw what Isaac was looking at. It was a raccoon. But not a simple raccoon – it was one that Liam knew very well.

“That little thieving bastard!” Liam let out a low growl when he saw the raccoon approaching Isaac and whatever food he had now in his hand. “He’s that little prick that stole my breakfast this morning!”

“He was only trying to be friendly,” Isaac said as the raccoon in question grabbed a small bite of cereal bar, swiftly running away with it.

“He’s going to be following us now, you know?”

“I think he’s been following you already,” Isaac replied as he stood up once the raccoon was out of sight. “I thought—“

“Don’t call him my forest friend,” Liam snapped. “He’s a thief who ran away with my breakfast.”

“Stop moaning about your breakfast! We’ll have bacon tomorrow, ok?”

Liam scrunched his face and shook his head a little before sighing and gladly accepting the offer of bacon.

“So, shall we head back to camp now?”

_Try to follow the scent uphill[[DB3f]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531971)_

_Cross the river[[DB4e]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532292)_

_Go back to camp[[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)_


	27. DB4g

“Let’s take the left,” Isaac decided.

“Why?”

“Because according to my map that path takes us back to the lake and the camp… eventually,” Isaac explained.

“That’s a lame reason.”

“We’re up in the mountain running after a smelly creature, and you don’t see me complaining,” Isaac deadpanned. “If we are going to find nothing in the end, I’d rather find nothing close to my tent.”

Liam was not happy with that decision, but he could not really argue. To him it also felt as if they were on some wild goose chase that was taking them around the mountain without a purpose.

The two werewolves walked along the track which slowly and gently ascended a ridge, after which (Isaac insisted) they should be able to see the lake and head straight back to camp. Liam begrudgingly agreed to this. Isaac tried to cheer him up by sharing a cereal bar with him, which Liam gladly took.

“You are still the lamest werewolf explorer ever,” Liam explained. “I’ll tell everyone that we were this close to finding Bgfoot and you just wanted to go back to camp.”

“I’m sure that there are plenty of bars with weird drunken people who can claim exactly that,” Isaac sniggered. “Maybe you should stay and join them.”

“You won’t get rid of me that easily.”

“Shame.”

Liam punched Isaac in the elbow, hitting him on the funny bone. Isaac tried to apologise and offered him a hug, but he was too busy holding his elbow and giggling. Right then, as the path they were following approached a rock cliff up on their left, a few rocks rolled behind them. Liam turned around to see where they had come from while Isaac bit his tongue hard to keep himself from laughing any more.

“What was that?”

Both werewolves were on high alert. Their inner wolves could sense another supernatural creature close. _Very_ close. They did not believe those rocks had fallen by accident. Liam tried to look up the cliff and _saw_ something moving quickly and swiftly.

“Isaac…”

“Yeah… saw that.”

Before they could back away from the cliff, more rocks began to roll down, but these ones were clearly _aimed_ at them. Isaac and Liam could hear guttural noises coming from the cliffs and, while they tried to dodge the falling rocks, they saw them. There were two tall, ape-like creatures, covered in thick brown hair, and one of them seemed to be wearing a cloak of branches or twigs. The bigfoots were yelling at them, clearly displeased with their presence in what was very probably their territory.

“Remind me never to follow your stupid plans ever again,” Isaac said as he dodged a small boulder.

“As if your plans were any better!”

“My plans never got us to a stone fight with some frigging yetis!”

The stone bombardment stopped. Isaac and Liam heard two heavy thumps behind them, and guessed that the bigfoots had come for a closer fight. The werewolves flashed their golden eyes at each other and, with a quick nod, turned around to fight. The yetis (or bigfoots, or whatever they were – Liam had to read his book carefully later) were much bigger than they were, and their strength could just about match that of a werewolf. The betas had speed and precision, but the yetis could shatter bones if and when they landed a hit.

The fight continued evenly, but all the time Isaac and Liam were slowly edging back towards the open terrain, hoping to find an opportunity to leg it and run back to safety. This became a more imperative necessity when one of the yetis roared loud into the sky and another couple descended from the cliff to join in the brawl.

“Happy now?” Isaac said as he dodged a fist like a wrecking ball.

“You were always so witty, weren’t you?” Liam replied through gritted teeth as he lashed at an unaware yeti’s thigh.

“Oh, believe me. I’m _not_ witty,” Isaac snarled as he rolled over and clawed an enormous and furry calf.

“Just tell them we are only visiting.”

“I don’t speak yeti!” Isaac jumped to avoid being kicked against a rock. “And this was your idea.”

“Don’t play the blame game, Isaac.”

The tide was turning, and the yetis were getting the upper hand. And yet, Isaac and Liam had not found a chance to dart through their enemies and to run for safety. Isaac was looking for a gap when he felt his inner wolf whine in pain. A microsecond later, he heard Liam hitting a boulder right behind him. His pack instinct took over and he ran towards Liam, putting himself in between the yetis and his friend. Isaac snarled and dared them to get any closer.

But the yetis stopped their fighting. They growled at each other in their guttural voices and then one of them blew a horn. Without waiting for a bigger and meaner yeti to arrive, Isaac took advantage of the situation and, throwing Liam over his shoulders, ran away.

He dashed downhill towards the lake, hoping that the yetis would give up on them if they ran away from their territory. Otherwise they were screwed.

“Isaac?”

“Hey, buddy. Great to hear you’re conscious. Not the right time for a chat,” Isaac said as he ran as fast as he could.

“Where—“

“Please, Liam,” Isaac insisted, “just give me a second. We’ll be safe soon.”

“I think I can walk now?”

Isaac stopped and let Liam on the floor. He breathed heavily and coughed while Liam tried to stand up and walked without any further problems.

“Okay, time to run again,” Liam tapped Isaac’s shoulder.

“Oh, give us a break—literally!”

“Stop being such a smartarse!” Liam pulled Isaac’s sleeve and they were off. Soon they could hear the growling and roaring of the yeti behind them.

They kept running downhill until they reached a very steep slope. It was not a cliff, but it was going to be painful to roll down and too slow to walk down safely.

“What do we do?”

A rock flew over the werewolves’ heads, and they instinctively ducked.

“Isaac?”

_Slide down the hill[[DB5e]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532445)_

_Roll down the hill[[DB5f]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532463)_


	28. DB4h

“Let’s go up that way,” Isaac said, pointing to their right. Liam nodded and they continued their hike.

They followed the path that lead them up towards the mountain. After a few minutes they sensed the characteristic smell they had been tracking again, which encouraged them to keep on walking. Soon they left the trees behind and reached alpine meadows and areas with small bushes that characterised the upper layers of the mountain. There they saw many spots where the snow still lingered, and it became significantly colder once they were exposed to the high winds.

“I’m not liking this a bit,” Isaac said.

“Let’s go a bit further,” Liam insisted. “The scent is very strong here! The creature can’t be that far away now.

Isaac stopped for a second. He pulled his beanie and his scarf from his rucksack and put them on. Liam then did the same.

“Fine, but we’re not going up indefinitely. I don’t like the look of those clouds,” Isaac pointed with his chin at a large grey cloud that was forming around the summit.

The two werewolves kept on walking up the path. The traces of the creature were more prominent there, and they were sure that it could not be that far away from them. They even thought that they heard it growl. Liam picked up the pace and Isaac gritted his teeth and did the same. Isaac only stopped when the path they were following was hidden by the snow.

“Liam, we have to turn around.”

“Why? Look! There are prints in the snow!” Liam pointed. There were, in fact, very large bare-foot prints on the snow ahead of them, together with the same musky smell that had led them up there.

Isaac was not convinced. It was getting late and dark. It was definitely getting colder, and he was not very keen on the snow.

“Whatever creature we’re following, I’m sure it does not want us to find it.”

“Isaac, we’re so close to finding the yeti or Bigfoot, or whatever large creature lives in this mountain! Aren’t you excited?”

“No,” Isaac replied dryly. “I’m cold. I came here to look at rocks.”

Before Liam could argue further, a primeval growl roared from the snowy-covered summit. Liam and Isaac looked at each other. The creature was definitely challenging them.

“I really don’t like his tone,” Isaac said, edging backwards.

At that moment a strong gust of wind blew down from the mountain and it began to snow. Heavily.

“I really _really_ don’t like this, Liam. Not at all. Let’s turn around!”

“Where is that snow coming from?” Liam shouted over the howling wind.

“Nowhere good,” Isaac yelled back as he put his mittens on. “Come on, Liam! Let’s go down!”

Liam was about to beg, but the wind picked up speed and the snowfall became heavier.

“Fine, let’s hurry up.”

Both werewolves turned around, retracing their steps towards the lower slopes, away from the snow and the threatening creature. But it was difficult to find where they had come from originally. The snow had covered their footsteps and meddled with their scents. The only reassuring fact they could hold to was that they were walking downhill.

Twenty minutes later they were properly lost in the sudden snow storm. Isaac was beginning to believe that that unexpected storm was not completely natural, but he had other things to worry about, like finding their way back to their camp.

To make things worse, the growling and howling of the creature was now right behind them, as if it was chasing them down. Liam kept close to Isaac as they advanced slowly down.

“Shouldn’t we be by the trees now?” Liam shouted.

“You’d think so, but somehow we’re still on this fucking barren meadow!”

The menacing growl was getting close. Way too close for comfort. At one point, Liam could have sworn that the creature was just behind them, invisible through the curtain of snow. Liam told this to Isaac, and both werewolves took their gloves off and extended their claws, expecting an attack at any moment.

But the attack never came.

Isaac and Liam heard the roar of the creature louder and clearer than they had heard before. When they located the origin of the noise, they turned to see a large, fur-covered creature, with shining purple eyes. It stood on two legs and had two massive and muscly arms covered in scars. The creature was standing on a boulder, and beating its chest with his massive fists. When it roared again, the snow magically stopped. Isaac and Liam backed away slowly, keeping their eyes fixed on the monster.

“What does your book say about magical yetis in the Rockies?” Isaac whispered from the corner of his mouth.

“I don’t think I got that far,” Liam replied in the same way, their eyes fixed on the creature.

“On the count of three we leg it, you hear me?”

“Agreed,” Liam nodded slowly.

“One… Two…”

Before reaching three, the creature punched the boulder on which it was standing with all its might as it roared a cursing howl that echoed all over the mountain. The boulder split in half and the ground under their feet began to shake. A low rumble could be heard coming down from the top of the mountain, and before they could react, a wall of ice and snow descended upon them.

_Avalanche![[G1]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53533171)  
_


	29. DB5a

“Isaac?”

“Yeah”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t know and I don’t want to find out,” Isaac snarled. He knew something was very wrong there. The mist, the music, the colours, the fucking mystic towers that appeared and disappeared, the sudden chasm… It all added up to something, but he could not guess what. “Just be ready.”

Liam nodded silently. Both had their claws extended and had pulled off their hoods and hat so they could hear properly. The coat was going to be annoying if they had to get into a fight, but they could not simply ditch them – the disturbing story of Coach Finstock losing a testicle to cold exposure had taught them that much.

“We are going to stick to the path,” Isaac instructed. “We are going to follow it and, when we reach the treeline, we dart downhill, ok?”

“Agreed.” After a pause, Liam added, “but what if those things get to us first?”

Isaac looked at the towering shadows that were getting closer. Thankfully, the fog was still thick enough to make them unidentifiable blurbs to their werewolf eyes. With any luck, they would not have been spotted.

However, they were out of luck.

Isaac and Liam felt the heavy thump of something big and heavy landing behind them. This was soon followed by an intimidating roar. As they turned around, the werewolves saw that, right behind them, stood a huge person, easily twice as tall as Isaac, and wide and heavy. He had a long brown beard tied in a knot at his chest. The giant was wearing a fur coat that seemed to have been badly stitched together with the pelts of four or five different bears. Liam noticed that there were also a few wolf pelts, which sent a shiver down his spine.

Before they could react, three towering figures appeared next, circling around them and blocking their exits. They spoke between them in a weird language that the betas could only gather was some form of giant tongue.

“So much for a kingdom of wise wizards in the clouds.”

“Not now, Isaac, please,” Liam said, not fully masking his fear.

Their inner wolves snarled and were ready to fight.

“On the count of three,” Isaac whispered while he kept an eye fixed on one of the giants, “I’ll attack that one blocking our road, ok?”

“Ok,” Liam replied, hyping himself for the fight and cracking his neck.

“When I’m fighting, I want you to dart through and run to camp.”

“Yeah—wait. _What_?”

“Just do as you’re told,” Isaac growled as he lowered his body position, ready to jump.

“I will not let you here to be eaten by snow giants.”

“Liam, you need to get back to camp and tell Scott what happened.”

“Fat chance,” and, without any further warning, Liam jumped at one of the giants, fully shifted, and roaring.

“Fuck!” Isaac muttered and he ran behind Liam, attacking the same giant.

The betas lashed, slashed and clawed at the giants, but their fur clothes were as good as armour, and it felt that whenever they drew blood it was no more than a paper cut.

The giants were slow to react, but soon enough they walked to their companion and tried to grab the werewolves and pull them off him. Isaac and Liam had to be agile and fast to avoid being grabbed by the massive hands, fearing that they could be mashed into a pulp or lobbed into a rock with extreme ease.

The fight did not last much longer. Isaac and Liam jumped and rolled and dodged giant hands and fists left, right and centre. But when Liam jumped high to try and get to a giant’s face, he was intercepted in mid-air by an enormous backslap, which sent him flying in the opposite direction, until he crashed against a rock. Isaac froze in terror as he saw his friend flying, and his inner wolf whined when he clearly heard Liam’s bones breaking. Forgetting his own safety, he ran towards Liam, kneeling by his side, and putting his hands on his skin to draw as much pain as possible.

“Enough!” a cavernous voice rumbled in English. “Enough fighting.”

Liam was conscious, but in a lot of pain. Isaac was fighting back tears as he turned around to face the giant who had spoken.

“Please, let us go!,” Isaac begged.

“Who are you?” the leading giant asked, lifting his hands in a sign of peace. “What are you doing here? How did you come this far?”

The imposing presence of four giants expecting an answer forced Isaac to speak, even if he would not let go of Liam’s hand.

“We are just students,” Isaac replied vaguely. “We came here only to study the mountains.”

“Why were you entering the domains of Khagar Turek then?” the tone was accusatory, but not threatening. It was difficult to read the expression of the giant in any case.

“We were just trying to reach the towers,” Isaac blurted, still drawing Liam’s pain. “I swear – we don’t know who this Turek is. We saw the towers in the cloud and we… we…”

“The Sky Kingdom and the Silver Towers are forbidden!” the giant roared. “But they are invisible to mere humans, so there is something else you are not telling us.”

Liam shifted uncomfortably on his back, and Isaac heard his bones snapping back into place and fusing. When the shorter beta let out a loud groan, Isaac knew that the worst had passed and he let out a long-held sigh.

“We’re werewolves,” he admitted. “We’re from a pack in California. But I swear we are only here to study the mountains!”

“Why did you chase the Towers then?”

“I don’t know! We knew of the legend of the kingdom of the wise wizards who live in the towers in the sky! We were… we were curious. We did not want to trespass into your domains…”

Liam managed to sit up, gritting his teeth, and Isaac immediately turned his head to him, ignoring the giants that still circled them.

“Please, my friend is badly hurt. We intended no harm! Please let us go?”

The chief giant grunted an order and the three others dispersed, returning back into the mists. When he was finally on his own, the giant kneeled down and gently pushing Isaac aside, lifted Liam with care.

“What are you doing?” a terrified Isaac demanded. “Don’t—please don’t hurt my friend! He’s not healed yet.”

“I will take you back to your realm, Shapeshifter,” the giant said warmly. He cradled Liam into his fur sleeves and walked down in long strides towards the lower slopes of the mountain.

They walked in silence, Isaac running in haste trying to keep up with the giant. Eventually, they reached the treeline, where the giant placed Liam on the ground and turned around without speaking any further.

“Wait!” Isaac called and the giant turned around. “Thank you.”

“Just make sure not to enter the mists of the Tower again,” he warned as he walked into the fog.

“But… but what is it? What are those towers?” Isaac yelled.

“That is not for you to know,” the voice of the giant echoed through the mists, but he was nowhere to be seen.

_Seems there is no other option[[ED1]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53533099)  
_


	30. DB5b

Isaac and Liam approached the tower in awe, mouths agape, and standing close together. The massive gate, which was easily twice as tall as them, was now ajar. Through the gap, they could see a bright red light, which prevented them from seeing whatever (or whomever) was inside the tower.

“Who summons the Guardians of the Silver Tower?” a rumbling voice echoed from inside the building, shaking the ground under their feet, and causing some piles of snow to shift and slide away.

“Uh- eh- uhm. I- I’m Liam.”

“ _What do you think you’re doing?!_ ” Isaac grabbed Liam by the arm as he yelled in a whisper into his ear.

“ _I don’t know!_ ” Liam whispered back “ _They asked for my name! I was just being polite!_ ”

Isaac could only bite his knuckles at that.

“We know who you are, Liam Dunbar, Beta werewolf of the pack of True Alpha Scott McCall—“

“Crap, they know who we are.”

“—And you are Isaac Lahey, Beta werewolf of the same pack. Knight and Dream walker.”

Isaac froze still. Whoever lived in that tower not only knew who they were, but also knew about the whispers he had heard after they defeated the cult at the nemeton the previous summer. Not even Scott knew about that – he had not told anyone.

“Fear not, Dream walker,” the voice resounded again. “For we do not speak for the Outer God.

“But- but- but-“ Isaac could not complete a sentence.

Liam could not stop staring at the opened tower, but he sensed Isaac.

“Isaac, what are they saying to you? I can’t hear them!”

Isaac was speechless and shaking in fear. The memories of the maddening voice of the God of the Thousand Masks suddenly resounding in his mind again.

“Hey, hey, Isaac,” Liam now turned around, and forced the other beta to look at him in the eyes. He flashed them gold and Isaac’s inner wolf reacted by taking over. Isaac shifted for a second and was immediately back. “You ok?”

“I just… it’s only _they_ know…”

“We know,” the voice from the tower spoke again, and Isaac and Liam turned around to look at the light that shone from inside.

“You have reached this tower and proven yourselves worthy of seeing the Silver Tower,” the voice was now warm and soothing, almost congratulatory. “But you have stumbled upon our kingdom by accident, and you are not ready yet to access the knowledge of the Elders.”

“What elders?” Liam asked, unable to keep his mouth shut.

“The Elders of the Silver Towers are not wizards, as you think. We are a council for things supernatural, and an ultimate source of knowledge. This is all you need to know right now.”

Liam opened his mouth again to say something, but Isaac elbowed him in the ribs and then shushed.

“Should you truly need to come to us, and should your Alpha require the answer, just remember to follow the Silver Tower.”

“What answer?” Liam asked aloud.

“ _Liam_!”

“What? I bet you don’t know what they’re talking about either.”

“When you are ready, you will know…”

The gates of the tower shut close, the lights that glistened around the tall building died. And before Isaac or Liam could realise what was happening, they were falling back into an abyss.

_What the– ?![[ED2]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53533108)_


	31. DB5c

“Liam?” Isaac asked as he walked slowly away from the tower, pulling Liam’s coat as he did so. “Liam, come on. I- I- I think we have found the tower. And that’s all we wanted, really. Can we, like, go now?”

Liam nodded silently. There was a big difference between reading in a book about a lofty tower in the cloud kingdom populated by wise wizards, and a tower cloaked by some freaky magic cloak that nearly led Isaac down a cliff and, when it eventually opened, it glowed in _evil_ red like a spaceship in a terror movie.

Isaac and Liam had their families and their pack to think of. Disappearing into a hellish tower that nobody knows about at the top of a God-forsaken mountain was not the kindest thing they could do for their loved ones.

So they backed away together, slowly at first, then faster, until they dared turn around. Once they were facing downhill, there was nothing that could have stopped them. They retraced their steps with surprising agility, running down the mountain, reaching the tree line, past the alpine meadows, and down to the valley where they had camped, where they finally stopped to look behind them at the cloud-covered mountain top, where only a hint of a red glimmer shone through the mists.

“So,” Liam said as he panted and fought to get his breath back. “We found the towers, right?”

“Well, _that_ we did,” Isaac agreed, his hand on his chest, breathing in deeply.

“We did the right thing.”

“We did.” It had not been a question, but Isaac felt the need to reassure his friend and to convince himself.

“There’s no way on Earth I would have walked into that tower!”

“You and me both.”

“Never ever.”

“Ok. So we agree?”

Liam and Isaac looked at each other for a second. The mountain top was now dark and quiet. Eerily quiet. Liam nodded.

“Are you… going to sleep now?” Isaac asked, clearly indicating that he was not planning to do so.

“I think I will not. Not just yet.”

“I’ll build a fire,” Isaac answered perhaps too quickly, and glad to have an excuse to light a fire to keep whatever terrorised their minds at bay.

“I’ll help,” Liam volunteered in the same primeval spirit of scaring evil with light.

After a few attempts, the fire was roaring, larger than the night before, and certainly larger than what they needed to cook their dinner. Liam threw more wood once they finished eating, and they pulled their sleeping bags outside, so they could lie by the fire, which all their inner instincts told them was the safest place to be in that mountain.

Resting back to back as they were, and wrapped up to fight the cold, Isaac eventually mumbled, “I wish Scott were here.”

Liam turned around and gave his friend a quick hug.

“Me too.”

_That was close…[[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)  
_


	32. DB5d

“That thing is still out there!”

“And you’re sure—“

“Shut up!” Liam interrupted. “It’s going to get away!”

Isaac rolled his eyes, but he kept on walking. It took them only three steps to wade through the deepest part of the river, and were soon with water only up to their knees. Sprinting from then, the two betas reached the dry bank in a few seconds.

“Okay, so now that we’re soaked—“

“Stop whinging! Come on, it went this way,” Liam said as he pulled Isaac by the sleeve of his coat.

They followed the scent of the creature, which was stronger on that side of the river. The creature, or animal, or monster, or whatever it was kept growling as it moved away from them, but it was easy to follow its trail. They followed it until they got to a flooded meadow, with nibbled branches and fallen trees everywhere they looked, and there they lost the scent again.

“Congrats, we’re in beaver central now,” Isaac said as they stopped. “We’ve lost it, Liam. And look at the sun. We better turn around and head back if we want to be back before dark.”

Liam stood silent for a second, disappointed at the anticlimactic end of their pursuit. He then saw something in his peripheral vision. It was a shallow depression in the turf, badly dug with claws or talons which were larger than a human hand. The hole was lined with moss and bark and dried grass, like the nest of an animal, only that this one had the same musky scent as the creature they had been running after.

“Is this where it sleeps?” Isaac asked as he cautiously scanned their surroundings. “It’s never a good idea to pursue an animal to its burrow.”

“Does Bear Grylls say that too?” Liam snarled.

“I think it’s more common sense.”

Liam kicked a branch that protruded from the creature’s nest when he caught a swift shadow moving in the corner of his eye.

“There!” Liam pointed as he patted Isaac’s chest.

“I don’t really think it wants to be our forest friend, Liam,” Isaac moaned in a last attempt to stop their chase.

The creature ran away from them, leading them away from the beaver dam, up into the forest and then downhill until they saw it clearly jumping into the lake.

“Fuck!”

“We are _not_ swimming across the lake to get close to it, Liam,” Isaac warned in a tone that admitted no argument. “We’re turning around now.”

Liam frowned as he looked across the water. They had caught a glimpse of the creature standing by the lake and then diving into it, but now it was nowhere to be seen. They thought they saw a tall, two-legged creature with thick fur and glowing green eyes, but it had all happened too quickly, and neither Liam nor Isaac could even say with certainty if they had seen that at all.

Just as they were turning around to walk back, they heard a distant low growl.

“Ssssstay away from my lake.”

“Er… Liam?”

“Yeah, I heard it.”

Both werewolves looked around them trying to locate where the voice was coming from, eyes glowing yellow in alert.

“Do not crossss the lake, wolves!” the voice insisted.

“We were not planning on crossing,” Isaac said aloud, although he was not sure if the creature would hear them.

“Thisssss is my sssside of the lake,” the creature hissed again, but this time echoing from a different direction. “Your kind issss not allowed on the sssssanctuary island.”

Isaac quickly pulled the map out of his backpack while Liam looked around.

“We will not,” the shorter beta announced. “We will stay on our side!”

“Sssstay on your ssssside…”

“The island…” Isaac muttered as he looked at his map. They had not noticed, but in the centre of the lake there was a large island. From what they could see it was flat and covered in trees, but it was true that the trees grew so densely packed that it was impossible to tell what was behind them.

“Isaac?” Liam muttered through his teeth, still looking around.

“Yes, yes, let’s go. We are going!” Isaac said aloud. “We will remain on our side.”

“Your sssssside,” the voice hissed again. “Ssssstay there…”

And then Liam saw _it_. Across the lake the creature was looking at them. As opposed to the last time they saw it, now it was standing still, pointing a threatening finger at the two werewolves.

The creature was big. It had unbelievably wide shoulders, but they slouched over. And even so, the creature was probably a head taller than Isaac. It had powerful arms covered in thick brown fur that terminated in long black claws. Its most remarkable characteristic was its wide, flat and scaly tail, which together with its large frontal teeth gave the creature the aspect of a monstrous mutant beaver.

The creature snarled at them once more before disappearing into the island, leaving two slightly scared werewolves trying to find their way home.

_That was a hell of an encounter[[ED3]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53533120)  
_


	33. DB5e

“Slide!”

“That’s gonna be fun.”

“Just shut your cake hole and slide!”

Without further thinking, Liam and Isaac sat down and slid down the slope as safely as they could. Bushes, rocks, and branches scratched and bumped them as they quickly made their way down the slope. But it was not fast enough. The yetis appeared soon at the top of the slope, hurling stones and growling.

“Shit! Isaac!”

“I know, I know! Just keep going!”

The yetis began their descent, trying to reach the werewolves before they got too far away. They jumped down, landing with heavy thumps that nailed them to the ground, keeping them from falling down, and sending blocks of turf flying around them. After three or four jumps, they reached the two betas, who were again surrounded.

“That was a brilliant idea,” Liam said as he stopped in a muddy rut.

“Shut up!” Isaac snarled, eyes flashing golden and fangs coming out. “We can discuss our brilliant ideas later.”

The circle of menacing yetis narrowed. Some of them were pointing rudimentary spears made of sharpened branches at them, but they were not moving any further. They seemed to be waiting for something. Or someone. Liam and Isaac did not move, keeping perfectly still.

“What are they doing? Why don’t they attack?”

“Why would I know?”

“You’re not helping, Isaac.”

“Remember that and tell Stiles you said that when we get out of this one.”

“Silence!” a guttural voice roared behind them. Descending gracefully down the slope came another yeti, this one taller than the rest, and crowned with a delicate wreath of ice. “You have something which does not belong to you!”

“What are you talk—“ Isaac tried to say, but he was thumped into silence with a branch.

“Do not speak,” the crowned yeti said. “Just return what you stole!”

“We haven’t stolen anything—“ Isaac said before being hit again.

“Isaac!” Liam screamed when his friend was kicked by a massive hairy foot.

“I’m ok,” the beta whispered as he curled on the cold ground, feeling how his ribs slowly healed. He coughed and sat up before he dared speak again. “But your majestic yetiness, we haven’t taken anything.”

“Stop lying!” the yeti king roared, and black clouds began to whirl in the sky above him. “Or else we shall retrieve what you stole from your corpse!”

“We’ve only taken rock samples, I swear!”

“I do not speak about the rocks” the king said, clearly tired of this exchange. “I speak about the silver.”

“What silver?” Isaac questioned.

“You took a silver coin! The token from the masters in the clouds!” the king roared again. Thunderbolts and lightning crackled across the stormy clouds. “The silver coin that was lost – the one you found! And you took it with your dirty shapeshifter hands and stole it!”

“What? No! We- we- we lost it. We dropped it! We didn’t take it!” Isaac pleaded defensively, not liking the idea of disembowelment by yeti.

“We can sense the coin!” the yeti insisted. “It is made with the same star silver as the tower, and we can _sense_ it. Its magic calls us. So stop lying and return the coin!”

“But- but- no! We lost it! We dropped it!” Isaac was panicking. These insane creatures were going on about a coin they found that morning and then lost. And what was all that about star silver? And the tower kingdoms were _real_? “Liam, a little help, maybe? Come on, tell them! Liam?”

Liam had been very quiet all along, especially ever since the king had mentioned that they had stolen something.

“Liam,” Isaac said from the corner of his mouth. “Is there something you wish to share with me right now?”

But Liam did not reply. Isaac then turned around, but the younger beta would no look at him. He was too busy staring down at his own feet. Isaac could feel his friend blushing. Deliberately slowly, Liam took off one of his gloves and put his hand in his pocket.

“Liam?” Isaac asked with incredulity.

“I’m sorry, Isaac,” the younger beta muttered, not meeting his friend’s gaze.

When Liam’s hand came out of his pocket, he was holding a shiny silver coin with an inscription surrounding the image of a tower. The very same coin that Isaac thought they had lost that morning.

“Sorry…”

_Misunderstanding much?[[ED4]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53533126)  
_


	34. DB5f

“Roll!”

“That’s gonna be fun.”

“Just shut your cake hole and slide!”

Bracing themselves for a bumpy ride (and Isaac in particular praying that his photo camera would not suffer much), the two werewolves pushed themselves over the edge and rolled down the slope. Stones, bushes and roots bumped everywhere, and they were certain that no part of their bodies was left unbruised. Thankfully, they would heal.

The more they rolled, the more momentum and speed they gathered, which was enough to leave the yetis far behind them, cursing at them in their guttural grunts and throwing sticks and stones ineffectively. When they got to the bottom of the valley, they were more than dizzy, and had to spend a good minute or two trying to stand up straight, and a few more to be able to walk properly. The two betas must have found their luck again, because when they looked up the yetis had given up the chase.

“Ok, where are we now?” Liam said as he tried to keep his eyes fixed on the horizon.

“I can’t read my map yet… but if we continue down this brook we should get to the lake. And once there… Well. It should be easy to get back to camp.”

Liam was happy to accept that. The two werewolves walked slowly, holding each other, along the flat valley, following the stream. After a few hundred yards the green grass turned into a wooded area, but the course of the brook was easy to follow. By then, the world had stopped spinning, and they walked through the forest accompanied by the continuous gurgling of the stream. They continued walking along it until they reached a clearing where three different watercourses merged into a small river. They could almost see where this river joined the lake, but there was something else in that grove that drew their attention.

A near-perfect circle had been marked on the ground with golden sand, very unlike the sand they had seen at the bottom of the rivers and the lake. This was much finer, and closer to beach sand. There were no fallen leaves or small pockets of snow on this circle of sand. There was not even the odd pine cone. It was undisturbed. And at the opposite end of the circle of sand, Liam and Isaac could see a glistening silvery surface.

“Isaac, are you seeing this too?” Liam asked suddenly pointing.

“You mean, that sand circle of doom?”

“Good”. Liam replied, not even looking at Isaac, completely fascinated with what they were seeing. “It’s not just me.”

“No… I think we both are seeing this.”

Without noticing, both Liam and Isaac began to walk towards the sand circle. All the sounds of the forest around them died. All the light seemed to come directly from above them. And when they finally stepped inside the circle they _saw_ straight into the silvery surface.

Right there, looking at them with mirroring expressions, where two other people. One identical to Isaac and one identical to Liam.

_If you’re reading this between o’clock and half past the hour, go to[[DB6a]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532484)_

_If you’re reading this between half past the hour and o’clock, go to[[DB6b]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532502)_


	35. DB5g

Liam looked back at Isaac with a blank expression. The river flowed slowly and gently around his hips.

“Are you cold and wet enough now?”

Liam nodded silently.

“Have you had enough adventures for today?”

Liam nodded again.

“Shall we go back to camp to get dry and warm?” Isaac asked in his most annoying and patronising tone and a befitting smirk.

Liam glared daggers as he turned around and walked away from the deep part of the river, refusing Isaac’s helping hand and storming to the bank.

They walked along the river until they reached a path that lead them back to their camp. As they walked, their boots squeaked and sploshed, although by the time they reached their camp, most of the water had been squeezed out. Their boots, socks and trousers were still soaked, nevertheless.

Isaac quickly built a fire and they set up a makeshift drying rack where they hung their dripping clothes.

“Whatever that creature was,” Isaac said as he handed Liam a steaming mug of coffee, “it’s not worth the cold and the wet.”

“It’s not as if we’re going to get pneumonia,” Liam defended himself as he tightened his sleeping bag around himself.

“True, but it’s still not nice.”

“What do you think that creature was?” Liam asked after a short while.

Isaac poured some condensed milk into his coffee as he thought carefully.

“I don’t really know.”

“Do you think it was Bigfoot? Or some wild shapeshifter?”

“You know that not everything has got to be supernatural, right? It could have been a bear.”

“That didn’t smell like a bear. And didn’t look like a bear.”

“I didn’t know that you had been sniffing bears,” Isaac teased.

“You’re gross.”

“I’m not the one who looks for bears in the woods and sniffs them!”

Liam rolled his eyes as Isaac giggled, but he did not refuse to clink his mug with Isaac’s when the other beta sat by his side.

“Come on, let’s watch those socks dry. That’s got to be fun.”

_Nothing left to do[[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)_


	36. DB6a

Liam and Isaac looked at each other. Their reflections on the silver disc did the same. Isaac raised his left hand, and his reflection mirrored his movement. Both werewolves advanced further towards the forest mirror with cautious steps, until they were in the centre of the sand circle.

Liam advanced closer to their reflections, and Isaac followed suit, either fascinated by the sight, or driven by an unstoppable force – neither could really tell which. Not that they could think much, as all their attention was devoted to the mysterious reflections, to their alternative existences beyond the mirror.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Walking towards the mirror felt like swimming through treacle. The sounds of the forest died. They could only look at the mirror that was calling them.

Liam kept advancing through the sand circle, dragging his feet and leaving parallel ruts in the otherwise undisturbed sand, until he reached the mirror. He then turned his head slowly up to look at Isaac, who with the same empty stare and slow movement nodded in approval. Isaac offered him a hand and Liam took it.

Liam heard a very faint voice somewhere at the back of his mind. A voice that was like a howl. It was calling for him, but the pull of the mirror was stronger, and definitely not as depressing and sad as that other mysterious voice. It was easier and more pleasant to ignore that whining howl.

Both werewolves held their laced hands together and reached out to touch the crystalline silver surface, a movement that was copied by their reflections. Only that the Isaac and Liam in the mirror did not have blank stares – they had mischievous grins.

They touched the surface.

_Blop![[CB5a]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532517)_


	37. DB6b

Liam and Isaac looked at each other. Their reflections on the silver disc did the same. Isaac raised his left hand, and his reflection mirrored his movement. Both werewolves advanced further towards the forest mirror with cautious steps, until they were in the centre of the sand circle.

Before they stepped any further, something clicked in Isaac’s mind – his inner wolf growled and snarled until Isaac snapped out of the trance he had been in. He looked around and found himself at the centre of some freaking magic circle, and a shiver ran down his spine. Next to him, Liam kept advancing, getting closer to the mirror.

Isaac had had enough. He reached forward and pulled Liam back brusquely, shaking his friend up and bringing him back to full consciousness. In front of them, their reflections copied their every move.

“Liam, can you see why this is a very bad idea? As in epically bad idea?” Isaac said.

Liam looked confused for a second, but after blinking a couple of times and realising where they were, he nodded.

“Yeah… how did we get here?”

“I think we walked. Don’t you remember?”

“I do remember,” Liam nodded slowly, as if trying to drag out a sluggish hidden memory. “But I don’t remember _deciding_ to walk here.”

“Ok, that’s not creepy at all,” Isaac said cautiously, keeping his eyes from his own unnatural reflection. “Shall we turn around now and never _ever_ return here?” he suggested with hope.

But Liam seemed to have a different idea. Either that or his mind had been taken over by the forest mirror. Either way, Liam stared blankly at his specular double and took one step forward. He reached out with his hand and took another step.

Isaac’s inner wolf howled, giving him the nerve and resolution he seemed to have lacked two seconds before.

_Follow Liam to the mirror_ [_[DB6a]_](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532484)

_Grab Liam and run away[[ED5]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53533135)_


	38. CB5a

A burning sensation crept up along their arms until it reached their shoulders. Suddenly Liam and Isaac were very aware that they had taken a very bad decision. Or rather: that someone else had taken a very bad decision _for_ them. But they were frozen where they stood and could not move.

The burning reached their chests and their hearts and everything went white. Liam and Isaac felt a large blast and were suddenly very conscious that they had been propelled backwards, away from the mirror and out of the sand circle.

They looked at each other in confusion, as if they were not sure about what had just happened, or if all they remembered was true. In any case, they had had enough, and knew better than to walk towards weird forest mirrors ever again. Both werewolves slowly backed away until they reached the river behind them, and followed it to the lake and, ultimately, to their camp.

[This storyline is not ready yet, because it overlaps with one of the planned expansions – sorry! Hope it will be ready soon]

_Er…[[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, sorry. Not quite there yet...


	39. EA

The morning after, both werewolves woke up, the confused memories of the previous day still fresh in their minds. As Isaac went to get some water and wash himself, Liam had to shoo an annoyingly familiar raccoon away, but he was too late, and the small mammal ran away with two of his chocolate-chip cookies.

“Well, yesterday was an exciting day,” Liam asked as he put a clean jumper on. “What are we doing today?”

_Try the mountain path[[D]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53531746)  
_

_Head back home[[F]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53533144) (End story)  
_


	40. ED1

When Liam felt strong enough to stand up they walked back to their camp. They walked down the path in silence, the recent events with the giants still overwhelming them. Isaac walked in front, lighting the way with his torch, while Liam followed close behind.

When they finally got to camp, they wasted no time and immediately built a fire to warm them up and cook a warm dinner. They ate their food with calm as they processed their earlier encounter. They sat together in front of the fire, partly to keep warmer, partly to feel some reassuring pack contact. Liam was the first one to voice his thoughts aloud.

“Why didn’t my book warn us about those giants?”

“I guess not many people get to meet them and live to tell the tale.”

“Do you think they let us go because we’re werewolves then?”

Isaac thought about that for a second, drinking some water before answering.

“That giant did say that humans cannot see the tower or reach it. Maybe the author of that book was also supernatural?”

“Why wouldn’t he warn us about the giants?”

“I don’t know,” Isaac answered simply. Liam was happy to accept that.

Neither said much after that. Isaac went to clean the cooking pot and their tin plates as Liam put de fire down. When Isaac came back to the tents, he saw Liam standing by Isaac’s tent and his sleeping bag over his shoulder.

“Are you scared of giants, Liam?” Isaac grinned.

“Me? Not at all…” Liam shrugged his shoulders. “But I thought that you might.

They stood there for a couple of seconds. It was evident that both needed more pack comfort. Neither thought they could sleep on their own that night. Not after an encounter with snow giants.

“Why my tent?”

“’Cos it’s bigger?”

“Fine…” Isaac rolled his eyes. “Get in. And if you snore, I’ll kick you out.”

They shifted part of Isaac’s stuff into Liam’s tent to make more room and then they threw in Liam’s sleeping bag.

_That was an exciting day…[[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)  
_


	41. ED2

Isaac and Liam woke up simultaneously, sitting up violently and gasping. They were around their fire, fully clothed, but cold and wet, as if they had been rolling over in the snow.

“Great,” Isaac complained as he took off his boots. “My socks are soaked!”

“Yeah, well… so is my jumper,” Liam added as he squeezed said jumper and water came out of the fabric.

“What exactly did we do?” Isaac asked aloud, looking at his current state, which was wet and cold.

“What do you mean?

“Why are we wet?” Isaac shouted, annoyed that Liam was not following him.

“Well… I don’t know!” Liam snapped back. “You were… taking your rock measurements,” he tried to remember.

“Weren’t we chasing something up the mountain?” Isaac had some blurry memories, but could not remember of what. Liam looked at him in confusion, but did not add anything useful. Isaac scratched his elbow before throwing in another log into their dying fire.

“Have we had dinner?” Liam suddenly asked.

“Why are we wet, Liam!” Isaac insisted, still not understanding what had happened.

“You just said we were chasing something up the mountain.”

“Well, I don’t remember, do I?” Isaac was getting a headache. Nothing was making sense. “What did we do after you lost that coin?”

“What coin?” Liam sat up straight, the mention of the coin suddenly triggering something in his mind.

“We… _you_ found a coin,” Isaac rubbed his eyes, trying to focus on that snippet of a memory.

“A coin with—“

“A silver tower!” both realised in unison, looking at each other with the same expression of surprise.

“Erm, Isaac?” Liam said, looking down at his hand. “I _have_ the coin.”

“How? We lost it!”

“ _You_ lost it,” Liam suddenly remembered very clearly how the coin had been lost.

“Wait, but—we found the tower?” Isaac suddenly asked, as if the blurry memory of a bad dream had just crept to his mind.

“I thought that was a weird dream,” Liam said cautiously and slowly, not sure he believed what he was saying.

“You remember finding the tower? Because I remember finding the tower. So we both had the same dream?”

“Maybe. We’ve spent too much time together…” Liam ventured a sensible and logical explanation. “But how is that coin in my hand again? And how did we come back?”

Isaac and Liam looked at each other through the fire, lost for words as the dreamy memories returned to them, shuddering at the implications of what they thought they reconstructed.

_That was an exciting day…[[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)  
_


	42. ED3

They heard a menacing growl coming from the island just as they began to walk back. The hike back to camp took shorter than expected, and they were lucky enough to find a point of the river narrow enough for them to jump across.

They wasted no time in building up a fire and setting up a makeshift drying rack where they could hang their wet clothes and boots. As Isaac rustled up something to eat that night, Liam was busy reading through his own Montana Rockies bestiary.

“You’ll never believe what that thing was,” Liam said with his nose still glued to the book.

“I think I’m ready to believe most stuff by now.”

“Well, that thing was apparently an afanc.”

“Ah, of course. How could have I not known!” Isaac said.

“You know what it is?”

“Of course not,” Isaac chuckled and Liam lobbed a pinecone at him.

“Listen to this, arsehole. The afanc is a beaver monster that lures people into its lake to eat them. They are shapeshifters who have been cursed and once they eat human flesh they may never shift back to their human self.”

“You’re telling me we saw a man-eating beaver?”

“I think it’s more complicated than that.”

Liam went on to read the few pages devoted to the afanc that his book had. He read about how they were connected to the kelpie, and how they were part of the general realm of evil drowning creatures. Isaac only had the one question.

“What was that thing about the sanctuary, though? And why did it not try to eat us?”

“Maybe it doesn’t like werewolves.”

“Seeing how it hid and ran, that’s a good bet,” Isaac conceded. “But what about the sanctuary?”

“I don’t know, the book does not say anything about it,” Liam added as he flicked through the book.

“Well… I don’t think I really want to know.”

“We don’t have to go into that island, right?” Liam asked suddenly, eyes opening wide.

“No. No, no. Don’t worry. Not anymore, really. I’m sure I can find another place from which to look at those rocks.”

_Better be careful around the lake…[[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)_


	43. ED4

“The coin!” the yeti king roared while the others slammed their massive fists on their chests.

“Liam?” Isaac asked with his mouth open, not believing what was happening around him.

“I put the hand in my pocket and swapped the silver coin with a normal quarter…” Liam said in a small voice as he stood up, still not looking at Isaac. “And that quarter is the coin that got lost.”

Isaac was left speechless. The other beta extended his hand and handed the coin over to the yeti king, who took it and eyed it carefully, as if he feared that it was a trick or a fake. Content with his inspection, the king opened a bag that hung from his belt and threw the coin in. For a split of a second, Isaac and Liam saw that the bag had hundreds of identical coins. As soon as they caught that glimpse, however, the yeti closed the bag and put it away from sight.

“Thank you, wolfman,” the king said haughtily. He gave a signal and all the yetis that surrounded the werewolves began to climb up the slope to the higher parts of the mountain. “It is a shame we have met in these circumstances. But any other time you wish to enter our mountains, please refrain from stealing what is not yours.”

Without waiting for a reply, the yeti king walked away to the mountain top with his enormous strides, leaving the two werewolves alone.

They did not speak for a few seconds, as they took their time to think about the encounter they just had. Eventually, Isaac stood up and held his hand out, offering it to Liam, who still would not look at him.

“Come on, buddy,” Isaac smiled. “Let’s get going. Let’s try to get back to camp before it’s too dark.”

Liam accepted his hand and pulled himself up. He shook the dirt off his trousers and, with a sad nod, they were off. They walked down the hill in silence until they reached the valley bottom, when Isaac could not help himself and blurted a question that had been bugging him.

“Why did you apologise?” Isaac asked with a sincere smile.

“Because I got us into that trouble with the yetis?” Liam replied, not really sure about why he had to explain his apology.

Isaac chuckled.

“Don’t be daft! You don’t need to apologise for that.”

“If you don’t remember, we were chased by abominable snowmen who beat you up and threatened to kill us!”

“It’s not as if we stole that coin on purpose,” Isaac shrugged as they walked side by side.

“But if I hadn’t hidden the coin then none of this would have happened!”

“If I had taken the coin, this would have happened. If we had lost the coin, we would have been blamed for losing it,” Isaac listed a few possibilities. “It’s not as if you did it on purpose… right? Your book did not say anything about yeti coins?”

“No?”

“There you go,” Isaac smiled again. Liam was a bit confused, but willing to accept that explanation. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we already have Scott to take the blame for things that are not our fault.”

“He’s getting better at that,” Liam supplied, trying to be helpful. They got to their camp.

“Yes… I guess. That’s still his first instinct, you know?” Isaac explained. “It’s just that now he stops to think about it before blurting it all out.”

That made Liam chuckle.

The rest of the walk along the valley and to the lake was blissfully uneventful. When they got to camp they dropped their rucksacks heavily on the ground, and kicked off their boots. Isaac sat with a big sigh on the floor, while Liam volunteered to build their fire for the night. During dinner, Liam spent most of the time going through his book, trying to make sense out of the descriptions of the yeti and the silver towers. Their discussion went well into the night, each of the werewolves coming up with theories and explanations, each more bizarre than the previous one.

Feeling safer and more relaxed after laughing their concern away, they bid each other good night, and retreated to their tents for a well-earned night’s sleep.

_That’s enough for today[[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)  
_


	44. ED5

“No, no, no, no…” Isaac said aloud, mostly to reassure himself. “No! Over my dead body!” he threatened the mirror.

Isaac shifted and jacked Liam back, throwing him on the floor. He dragged him without looking back to the edge of the sand circle, where he felt more in control of his own actions. Liam was still staring blankly, and Isaac was beginning to panic. He slapped him and shook him, but Liam was gone. That is, until Isaac, with tears of desperation running down his cheeks, _roared_ in his face, trying to reach to his pack mate.

“Liam for fuck’s sake, wake up!”

As if on cue, Liam blinked and looked suddenly terrified. He was about to scream in terror, but Isaac pulled him up into a hug, comforting him and even nuzzling his nose into his hair. Liam gripped him tightly until his breathing came down to normal. Only then did Isaac pull away.

“Are you ok?”

“I- I- I… that _thing_? It was calling me?”

“I don’t care right now! Are you ok?” Isaac insisted.

“Yeah, yes. I am.”

“Good. ‘Cause we are going to be running all the way to the camp!”

Liam nodded in approval, and they were off. They were running non-stop for the next forty minutes, until they reached the side of the lake they were more familiar with. From there it took them only a handful of minutes to reach their camp.

Neither of the two werewolves talked much that night. They built a fire and did not let it die all night. Isaac cooked something mechanically, but they were not that hungry, and most of it was left untouched. When it got darker, they even refused to go back into their tents, because the only comfort they could find was being with one another. Isaac agreed to bring their sleeping bags out so they could sleep together, keeping an eye on each other, and back to back protected by the fire. Only then they managed to calm down enough to find some sleep.

_That’s enough for one day[[EA]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406200/chapters/53532547)_


	45. F

“I think we’ve had enough of an adventure,” Isaac said as he finished his breakfast. The only good thing about camping breakfasts was that they could have sausages on the fire and condensed milk in their otherwise awful coffee.

“Yeah, I’m ready to go back,” Liam agreed. He had really enjoyed the fresh air and the great outdoors, but there had been enough supernatural crap for his liking.

“Is it ok if I go and take a few more pictures?”

“Does that mean that I get to fold the tent?”

“I knew you were a clever one,” Isaac winked as he finished his coffee. Liam growled but he did not really mean it.

“Fine. Off you go,” he shooed the other beta away. “But I get to choose the music this morning!” Liam made a last demand.

“Only up to the state line.”

“Deal.”

They shook hands and Isaac excused himself from their camp as Liam sighed loudly with his hands on his hips, looking at their tents.

When Isaac returned to their camp, he did so with a bagful of rocks (samples apparently). By then Liam had put the tents away and they were almost ready to go. They walked the short hike to the car park, put their rubbish in the bins, and jumped on the car. Before leaving, Isaac rang Scott and Melissa to tell them that they were both ok and that they were heading back to civilisation. Liam, meanwhile, sent a handful of pictures to the pack group chat (a few landscapes, a few of Isaac being a rock dork, and a selfie of them both) so everyone could be jealous of their amazing camping weekend.

After the first forty miles or so in almost silence, Isaac addressed the big elephant in the room.

“So… that was… _freaky_.”

“True. And unexpected,” Liam pointed out, still looking out the window.

“Do you think they’re going to believe us back home when we tell them?” Isaac asked casually. They had not discussed their reporting back.

“Are we… are we _telling_ them?” Liam had assumed that they were going to keep quiet and bury their experiences beyond the rock observation.

“I… I don’t like to keep things from Scott,” Isaac muttered and he gripped the wheel tighter.

That silenced them for a few more miles.

“But are they going to believe us?” Liam asked again.

“Well… if they don’t believe us there’s nothing else we can do. It’s not as if we are going to come back here to deal with whatever all that was back there…”

“Stiles would believe us.”

That drew a big grin on Isaac’s face.

“Stiles would have _loved_ this trip. Except for the camping and hiking and all the outdoor bits. Those he’d have _hated_.”

Liam chuckled and so did Isaac. The tension in the car dissipated almost immediately. Whatever they had seen up in the mountains, it was far behind them. They speculated and imagined what Stiles would have done if he had come camping, each new imagined scenario funnier than the previous one.

Eventually they had to stop to fuel up and buy lunch. They stopped for a while so they could stretch their legs before continuing on their long drive back to California.

“I have all my pictures and my measurements, right?” Isaac asked after a while.

“I don’t know? You tell me!” Liam blurted from the driver seat. “It’s a bit late to turn around in any case.”

“I do. I have everything I need for my dissertation.”

“Perfect. So the trip was a complete success, right?”

“Right.”

“There you go… shortarse,” Isaac concluded with a smirk. Liam glared at him first, but he smiled back in the end.

After an unbelievably long drive, they finally got to Beacon Hills, where they were going to stop for the night, as they did not fancy adding the extra hours to get to Davis. They parked outside Liam’s favourite Chinese restaurant and they brought the food back to the Dunbar house. Isaac would go back to Melissa’s place later.

“Liam,” Isaac said as he finished his last piece of sweet and sour pork. He stared into his bowl, without making direct eye contact. “I just wanted to thank you again for coming all the way to Montana with me.”

“That was a great weekend out, Isaac. And we’re pack. I didn’t mind it at all.”

“Not even when that thing happened up in that mountain?”

“You mean you obsessively looking at both rocks at your feet _and_ rocks in the distance?”

Isaac looked at Liam with a shit-eating grin and Liam simply put his hands up in surrender.

They threw the boxes away and Liam fished out of the bag their two fortune cookies.

“There you go,” Liam said as he threw one at Isaac, who caught it easily. “What’s your fortune?” He asked as he threw himself in his couch. “Mine says that I’ll come across an unexpected surprise…”

Isaac cracked it open and put one half-cookie in his mouth. As he munched, he pulled the small piece of paper and checked what nugget of infinite wisdom the cookie had for him. He read it first and a big smile formed on his face.

“What is it?” Liam asked with curiosity.

Isaac finished his cookie and coughed for further emphasis before reading aloud: “You will find a friend with a heart of gold.”

“Aw, is that me?” Liam sat up beaming.

“It might have been that raccoon that ran away with your breakfast,” Isaac chuckled.

“Yeah, whatever, I like you too,” Liam said with a wide grin still on his face, knowing very well that he had somehow made a best friend over a weekend.

**END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Congrats for reaching the main end! I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading and leave a comment, please :)


	46. G1

Everything went bright and white. Everything hurt before turning burning cold. Everything went black and silent.

Isaac lost track of time. The only certainty was that he was cold. _Incredibly_ cold. His clothes were soaked through, so all warmth he generated (even with his werewolf metabolism) was lost immediately. He tried to move and shake the snow off, but there was too much weight on him. He tried to call for Liam, but he could barely breathe with the weight of snow pressing on his ribcage. He searched through their shared pack bond, and only felt a very weak connection. Isaac wanted to cry. He was cold, wet, dark and trapped. He was _trapped_.

Panic slowly took over his emotions. He wished Scott were there with him. He wanted to see his boyfriend before he died in that glacial tomb. He reached through their pack bond, and sent all of his fears and emotions over to their alpha, hoping that even if he could not speak to him again, at least Scott would know how he really felt. He sobbed silently until he was too cold and exhausted to continue, and he fell asleep.

Liam felt Isaac tugging through their pack bond, and he wished he could shout aloud, and let him know that he was ok, because he could feel how scared and lonely Isaac felt. He _needed_ to reassure his packmate. But he couldn’t. He was trapped in the snow, and he was cold. He tried to punch through the ice, but he hardly had any space to manoeuvre. He felt the snow crushing him down, sucking the life out of him second after second. He tried to shout, but he could hardly gather any air to breathe. Liam growled in frustration and kept trying to claw through the snow, until he could not feel his fingers anymore and passed out.

At some point, he could not say when, Isaac heard a dog sniffling above him. His inner wolf tried to reach out and draw the rescue dog closer, but Isaac passed out again. He came back when he felt the weight on his shoulders diminish. There were voices around him, some shouting, some reassuring, but to Isaac it was all a blurry cacophony. He was still very cold. He heard a helicopter taking off, and everything went black again.

The first thing Isaac noticed when he was fully conscious was that he was tucked in a bed under a _lot_ of heavy blankets. It was not too comfortable, but it beat a hole in the snow. When he opened his eyes he noticed that he was in a hospital room, and that in the bed next to his was Liam.

“Li…” he tried to speak, but his mouth was dry.

“Isaac?”

A voice called his name, and Isaac’s heart skipped a beat. A warm feeling invaded his chest and, before he could turn around, he felt a familiar hand holding his. His inner wolf felt Scott’s presence, and began to howl and jump in excitement.

“Hey, babe,” Isaac managed to say when he finally saw Scott.

“You scared us all shitless, babe,” Scott said with a big smile. His eyes still red from crying. “Don’t do this to us again, please?”

“How’s Liam,” Isaac suddenly asked, trying to stand up.

“He’s ok. He woke up earlier, but he’s asleep now,” Scott reassured him. “They had to call the rescue helicopter to get you down from that mountain.”

“Did they get my notes and my camera?” Isaac asked, suddenly conscious of the entire point of their trip to the mountains.

“What notes?”

“For my project, you dumbass,” Isaac coughed and had to lie back.

“Normally people ask ‘where am I?’ when they wake up in a hospital bed after two days unconscious,” Scott joked as he passed him a glass of water, and let Isaac drink slowly.

“I’ve woken up in one before, so not much of a surprise there,” Isaac said with a grin.

“So you just survived an avalanche and your only concern is about your project?” Scott asked.

“It is the one reason why we went there,” Isaac shrugged, and Scott leaned forward to plant a kiss on his lips. “Hang on,” Isaac suddenly sat up straight, checking his fingers and patting himself all over. “Have I got all my bits still?”

“If you’re thinking about Coach and his wonderful story about cold exposure, don’t worry. You have all your bits and pieces on you. I’ve checked,” Scott reassured him maliciously.

At that moment the door opened, and Chris and Melissa walked in with three cups of coffee and a sandwich.

“He’s up, Mel!” Chris said with a smile when he saw Isaac, and Melissa went quickly to hug Isaac.

“I’ve been out for how long?” Isaac asked, eyes wide open as Melissa squeezed him.

“You don’t get to scare us like that, young man!” she admonished after she released him from her hug. “Why would you think that climbing up the mountain was a good idea?”

“I did tell him,” Liam lied with a big grin, always trying to win brownie points with Melissa.

“Did not.”

“Did too!”

“Stop it you two,” Scott flashed his eyes red briefly, still grinning, and the two betas rolled their eyes.

“Are you ok, Liam?” Isaac turned around to see his pack mate trying to sit up.

“You both are surprisingly ok,” Melissa explained, but still reproachful. “No broken bones or anything remotely painful – even if you were trapped under four feet of snow and ice for an entire day. But you were hypothermic. The doctors are surprised that you survived that long and so unharmed up there…”

“We _do_ know why, Mom,” Scott added with a wink and squeezing Isaac’s hand.

Chris gave Scott one of the coffees and the sandwich before sitting down on one of the chairs in the corner. But their doctor came in with Liam’s step-dad tagging along almost immediately, and Chris stood up to hear the official report.

Isaac did not pay any attention to what the doctor was saying, although the words ‘surprising’, ‘lucky’, ‘miracle’, and ‘thankfully’ were repeated over and over during the doctor’s explanation. Isaac just looked at Scott, who looked back at him with his beaming big brown eyes. He also turned around to look at Liam, who gave him a thumbs up and a reassuring tug on their pack bond. Liam also winked at Isaac and pointed at the table by the window.

On the table there were a handful of cards, a couple of balloons, and a box of chocolates. Isaac had the impression that the balloon was Stiles’, but he could not tell why. But what immediately caught his attention was his backpack.

“So my notes are ok then?” Isaac asked Scott with a hopeful smile, making him chuckle.

“Yes, dummy. Your stupid camera and your stupid notes are ok,” Scott carefully ruffled his boyfriend’s hair.

“Ah well… at least we don’t have to go back there again.”

The doctor left. Liam’s step-dad sat at the end of his bed, and Melissa did the same on Isaac’s. Chris simply stood at the feet with his hands in his pockets and a small smile, but Isaac could feel the relief emanating from the hunter.

“So,” Liam’s dad explained aloud. “Your body temperature is now back to normal, and the doctors find no other reason to keep you here any longer, so whenever we are ready we can all go.”

An hour later, the Beacon Hills rescue committee walked out of the hospital with Isaac and Liam walking slowly behind them. They drove a couple of hours to the park, because their car was still at the parking lot, and the tents and all their kit was still where they had set their camp. Once there, Chris and Scott walked with Liam and Isaac up to their camping spot while Dr Geyer and Melissa waited at the park office.

It was mid-afternoon when they all left Montana on their long drive back to Beacon Hills.

“So, avalanches aside,” Scott asked Isaac and Liam. He was driving the Jeep with his two betas. “How was the camping trip? I’m sorry I missed it…”

Liam bit his lip, and Isaac scratched the back of his neck, both betas trying to think of a way to put their experience in Montana.

“Well…”

**END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Congratulations - you reached the first Easter egg!


End file.
